Death Note: Time Gone By
by Asp. Anime
Summary: This fan-fiction will continue Death Note's story line, with N acting as the new great detective, and Ryuk as the main shinigami, again. However, this time, a different character picks up the notebook, whose intentions shy away from Light's own ideas. She won't use it for her own deeds, so what will be the drive to use the ominous notebook this time? Please read & review...
1. First Encounter

_'FOUR YEARS AFTER THE EVENTS CONCERNING LIGHT'S DEATH'_

**THE SHINIGAMI WORLD...**

Once again, Ryuk is seen staring off into space, bored as usual. He hasn't seen much action since writing Light's name in his Death Note, nor has he had many apples, but he got over his withdrawal symptoms a while back. He tried playing card games with the other shinigamis, but nothing so unimportant could hold his attention for long.

_I've only been away from Earth for four years, so that new genius kid N should still be alive. I wonder if I could have some fun with him for a while._ With that thought in mind, Ryuk prepared himself to go to Earth, telling his fellow mates that he would be gone writing names and would return shortly.

**THE HUMAN WORLD...**

He landed on the familiar grasses of Japan. _Been a while since I've been here, but it won't be so hard to find a place to drop this thing._ With that, he started toward Daikoku Private Academy, where Light used to attend high school. Finding a nice, secluded area (he didn't want some boring, useless moron to pick the Death Note up), Ryuk dropped the Death Note, allowing it to belong in the human world until someone picked it up and claimed ownership of it. _That's that. I guess I should head back to my realm now and wait. _And off Ryuk went.

**'A COUPLE OF WEEKS LATER'**

Amora Sai, a first-year high school girl with an average height, slightly tanned (but still pale) skin, raven-black hair, and golden eyes, walked out of the academy to find a peaceful and sunny day. Her insides turned in minor disgust, picturing all of the dreadful things this bright day could mask. Of course, anyone who asked it of her would get the same response of how beautiful it all was and what a great day she was having. _It's all just a load of crap; no one gives a damn about what I really have to say, they just want a response that keeps them in the normal atmosphere. Oh, sure, I'll smile widely and_ play _along, but I despise every one of them because of how fragile and insecure they are._ Sai started walking toward a grove of trees in the back of the school's vast space. People didn't like to walk this way home because creepy people were said to hang out around here, but Amora Sai was not a coward; she knew self-defense and, if it came to it, she had a stun-gun hidden in a secret compartment in her bag. She wouldn't have even bothered with all of this if she didn't love the feel of walking through the green area in a shortcut to her house. It was one of the only moments of calm she ever had, and she treasured it quite deeply.

In the middle of the tree grove, Sai let out a pent-up sigh escape her, and sat down on the grass in front of one of the trees, obscuring anyone from the school's view of her. Her math teacher had wrung her out in front of all the other classmates, asking what was wrong with her, and how could she bring the class average down with her horrendous test scores. Similar scenarios had played out with her science, Social Studies, and English teachers. It wasn't that Sai was stupid, she just saw a test, or schoolwork of some kind, and groaned, knowing that it would just take up her time and would not fill the emptiness in any way. She hated the teachers for wanting to do their jobs so enthusiastically, and she hated the students who could have a normal, or not-so great life, but acted like robots in class (of course, she was the same, but that was alright because she wasn't such a big fan of herself, either). She took her scoldings expressionlessly, as she usually did, and sat down when they were finished. Now she was sitting against a tree, and there was nothing to do at home so she could just stay there for a while.

She moved her hands along the trunk, feeling its texture, its solidarity, and then dropped her hands to the roots that were above-ground. She'd been sitting against this tree, relaxing, for a long time, probably only a few weeks after her high school career had begun did she first start doing this. No moron had ever really wanted to sit down in the forest where molesters and all other sorts of evils lurked, but Sai was a new kind of idiot, who took things at her own pace and did as she wanted when she knew she could get herself out of that situation if need be. She closed her eyes while her fingers traced the familiar roots in their wavy growth. _It's so easy to get lost in nothingness right here... but, something is different about this area of roots... it's up higher out_ _of the earth than usual._ She opened her eyes and turned to the changed area. '_Yes, someone has definitely put something under there, and something they didn't want anyone to find, by the looks of how well hidden it was. I wouldn't want to look at something that wasn't mine, but I'm curious now. What_ _was so_ _important that whoever it was buried the thing in such a concealed place?_ With that, she reached under as far as her arm could go... and pulled out a notebook.

"Not just any notebook," she muttered to herself, "but a Death Note." The scratched title alone was enough to send chills up her back, and she pocketed the (potentially) fake treasure in her backpack, setting off for her isolated room at her house.

**I'm sorry it was short, but this is more like a prologue than the actual story ^_^.**

**Please review and tell me what you think...  
**


	2. Second Encounter

**Thank you, WolfishMoon, for such an awesome first review ^^, so this next chapter is dedicated to you.**

Sai arrived home in about 15 minutes. She closed her eyes and sighed in relief: the lights were out, so that meant no one was home. _Good, I didn't want to see them anyways._ Her parents were rarely home, and when they were, it was nothing but hell for Sai. Normal parents scolded their children about how their grades were horrible. Normal parents told their children that they couldn't go out until their chores were all done. Normal parents looked at you in disapproving ways when you were doing something wrong and just wanted you to grow up sensibly. Sai's parents were not normal. They barely looked her in the eyes. They talked to her as little as they possibly could. They only corrected her, or told her to finish her chores, or disapproved of something she was doing when they knew they absolutely had to. Other than that, they just didn't care.

Both parents had lovers, and Sai would know who they were by their voice messages or the way they hung on to either her mom or dad when they were around. Her mother, Amora Sakuno, and her father, Amora Haruka, both knew about this, too. They had subtly hinted at what they expected Sai to understand one time during a conversation about ice-cream. Mr. Amora had informed Sai that, "You shouldn't be too particular about the flavors of ice-creams. You can mix it all together and the end result would still be the same. I could choose to have one flavor, or I could choose to have Chocolate, and Vanilla, and Pistachio, and that would be okay because flavor matter in these sorts of things." He looked deeply into her eyes, and Sai heard the double meaning in his words.

"Of course, your father is right; variety is alright when things start to go bland in the flavor you've chosen for a long time. But you should know that it is also important to keep up your treat's appearance, so people don't judge it so badly and ruin the ice-creams' corporation." Her mother's words also held a double-meaning, and Sai stayed quiet as they all finished scooping their ice-cream and ate it silently in the kitchen. Afterwards, she had gone up to her room and stared blankly at a wall for hours until it was midnight and staring became dreaming.

She was quite thankful that that was how they had chosen to tell her what to do, which was better than if they had just came out and said it in the usual threatening tones they use when dealing with their daughter. She tried to stay out of their way; she respected them for being so honest and open with just how much they hated her. She could feel it when she walked into a room with one of them, and she could feel it when they talked about her and didn't know she was listening in. She could especially feel their happiness when they were drunk and forgot all their problems, like their affairs and the fact that they had any children. It was those moments when Sai felt scared for her existence, as if it could be wiped away if no one remembered her.

She hated how it could affect her on some days, but she shook her head and forgot about it, because thinking about her parents would make her remember why it was they hated her so much, and she didn't want to remember any of that. So she took out her keys and unlocked the door to her parents' two-story house. It was a little on the big side, but the inside was barren of anything personal besides hand-selected sheets and preferred furniture designs. Other than that, pictures did not clutter the walls; family antiques did not align themselves with the fireplace or open-to-view shelves. Loving notes and important dates and family photos did not take up any space on the refrigerator, and not a hair was misaligned in the entire house. If her parents were to get a divorce, this house would be what her mother fought for. Sai wasn't sure who would fight to keep her, but she wouldn't be surprised if they fought over who would be the one to take her.

She reached her room at the end of the hallway on the second floor. It had a window that looked out over her shortcut, and she loved that green compared to her white room. She plopped onto her bed and took out the notebook. "Death Note." She felt the black cover with her right hand, and opened the cover. There, on the back of the black material, was a list of... something. As she looked closer and her English skills kicked back in, she saw that they were rules.

"The person whose name is written in this note shall die, and this note shall not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their minds when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected." _Holy shit, what is this crap?_ Sai wondered at who would make something like this, and what kind of life they had to have wanted to write it. She didn't like the thought, and started to think it could be a joke, but then wondered why it wasn't lying around where anyone could pick it up, and instead had hidden where no one (if they weren't the freak Sai was) would find it? She saved that thought for later and went on to read the rest of the rules: "If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen... If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack... After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds... The note shall become the property of the human world once it touches the ground of (arrives in) the human world... The owner of the note can recognize the image and voice of its original owner, i.e. a shinigami..." That idea made Sai experience a short panic attack, but she calmed down with the thought that this was probably just a joke. Still, she didn't want some freak popping up in her bedroom to make the joke more elaborate. She continued: "The human who uses this note can neither go to Heaven nor Hell...", but she no longer believed in those places, "If the time of death is written within 40 seconds after writing a person's name, the time of death can be manipulated... A human who touches the Death Note can recognize the image and voice of its original owner, a shinigami, even if that human is not the owner of the Death Note... The person in possession of the Death Note is possessed by a shinigami, its original owner, until they die... If a human uses the note, a shinigami usually appears in front of him/her within 39 days after he/she uses the note... Shinigamis, the original owners of the Death Note, do not do, in principle, anything which will help or prevent the deaths in the note... A shinigami has no obligation to completely explain how to use the note or rules which will apply to the human who owns it... A shinigami can extend his life by putting human names on the note, but humans cannot..." everything about this note was amazing: its texture, the writing font, even these rules. Sai swore that if she knew what it was like to fall in love with something, that this is what it would feel like. It was just so... elaborate... And not boring, unlike her life at that point. "A person can shorten his or her own life by using the note... The human who becomes the owner of the Death Note can, in exchange of half of his/her remaining life, obtain the eyeballs of the shinigami which will enable him/her to see a human's name and remaining lifetime when looking through them... A shinigami cannot be killed even if stabbed in his heart with a knife or shot in the head with a gun; however, there are ways to kill a shinigami, which are not generally known to the shinigami... The conditions for death will not be realized unless it is physically possible for that human or it is reasonably assumed to be carried out by that human... The specific scope of the condition for death is not known to the shinigamis, either; so, you must examine and find out... One page taken from the Death Note, or even a fragment of the page, contains the full effects of the note... Even the original owners of the Death Note, shinigamis, do not know much about the note... You may also write the cause and/or details of death prior to filling in the name of the individuals; be sure to insert the name in front of the written cause of death; you have about 119 human days in order to fill in the first name before losing possession of the note... The note is effective even in the hands of one who does not own it... The Death Note will not affect those under 780 days old... The Death Note will be rendered useless if the victim's name is misspelled four times... 'Suicide' is a valid cause of death; basically, all humans are thought to possess the possibility to commit suicide, it is, therefore, not something 'unbelievable to think of'... Whether the cause of the individual's death is either a suicide or accident, if the death leads to the death of more than the intended, the person will simply die of a heart attack; this is to ensure that other lives are not influenced..."

Sai finished reading, and couldn't help but think about how there were so many rules. This was definitely made by someone intelligent enough to make things interesting. A smirk lit up her face, but turned to one of intent observation. For the first couple of rules, the font was the same as that of the title. But, as she went down the list of rules (which continued on to the back flap), she noticed how the font started to change minimally, grew more artistic, as if someone other than the original creator had added on to it. The indents didn't look as old, so Sai thought that that was the case.

A sudden idea crossed her mind, and Sai quickly changed out of her school uniform into some jeans and a baggy hoody. She put on gloves for good measure, stuffed the death note into a satchel along with a pen and her stun-gun, and ran from her house into the molester-filled forest. "This night should prove to be interesting whichever way it goes." With a smile on her face that hadn't touched it in a while, she started slinking from shadow to shadow in the woods.

**Thank you for reading my story, and remember to drop me a review if you have time. I would love to hear what you think :).**


	3. Uncovered Facts

It didn't take as long as she thought it would to stumble across something interesting. There was a little blonde girl in a pretty plaid dress in the middle of the woods. Her hair was in pigtails, and she looked to be near 10 years of age. _Typical: Little girl in the woods because she got curious or some other stupid_ _baby shit, and then decided that she was grown-up enough to brave the world herself. What a stuck-up_ _dumbass._ Directly across from her was a large man in a huge gray overcoat. He was wearing a matching detective's hat, but he was no good guy. His dark eyes glistened with lust, and his bearded mouth twitched occasionally as he stalked closer to the girl. Sai could just tell from everything else about him, like the way he walked so freely, and his bare legs, that he had absolutely nothing else on under that overcoat. Ultimately, this is what pissed her off the most, this simply gesture that meant that the man was practically prepared for this sort of thing. She hated the world for being what it was, and she hated the girl for being weak, and she hated the man for desiring little girls like her. It was sick, and disgusting, and Sai just wanted to do something, anything, that would hurt him.

But that didn't matter right now, only the experiment did, and she would take pleasure in electrocuting him later (she hadn't brought her stun gun for nothing). Nothing else mattered right now but proving the notebook's worth and killing the man in front of her. She remembered the rules well, and she didn't want him to have a heart-attack, because that wouldn't prove anything (at least not entirely).

The man was only a few feet from the girl, and she wasn't going to be able to run anywhere, so he advanced unhurriedly. The frightened girl's eyes seemed like they were going to pop out of her head. Sai quickly started to write in the Death Note with her pen, but realized that she had absolutely no idea what this guy's name was. She quietly slapped her head. _What the fuck is wrong with me? Maybe I am_ _just an idiot._ But she would be damned if she was going to let something like that stop her. _Walking closer to the girl, ( ) suddenly started clawing at his own throat, digging deeper and deeper until the veins were finally damaged and he started to slowly choke on his own blood. But, before he could_ _die, he wrote on the tree trunk closest to him: ..._ Sai then stepped out of the shadows as quietly as she could and crept up behind him.

"Hi there, how's it going?" Sai suddenly burst out. The man quickly turned around and scrutinized the girl who had just interrupted him. Her voice had sounded cheerful upon greeting him, but that was it. Her face was expressionless, her mouth set in a fine line, her body calm and loose... but tight and filled with tension at the same time. The most noticeable features were the girl's eyes. They both stared at him from a live body, but they were as dead as the rocks beneath her feet. No, they weren't entirely dead, they had a condescending fury in them, and that was somehow worse. But, like hell was the man going to be scared away by a girl not that much older than the one behind him.

"I don't know who the fuck you think you are, but you shouldn't have come here. Why don't you just leave and forget everything you saw here, before I decide to move onto you next." The man's tone was menacing, but he really didn't want the girl to see his face. She hadn't, by the looks of it, or a different reaction would have come.

The little girl was curled up on the forest floor, and she was mumbling something to herself. As Sai tried to decipher what it was, the words became clearer: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, so sorry...daddy." That shocked her so much that she almost didn't see the anger cross the man's face and him start to run towards her. She dodged to the side quickly, and punched the man in the side of his face. She was beyond listening now, there was no forgiveness waiting for him. He staggered sideways, and Sai quickly kicked his chin upwards. His hat was knocked off with the kick, and she saw his face for the first time. It wasn't just some guy off the streets; it was the man running for the new principal's position at her academy. But that wasn't all: this man was also the guy who used to be the vice principal, and had visited her in the hospital when she had come down with food poisoning, when no one else would see her. He had brought her friendly chocolates to eat on Valentine's Day when she was all alone: Ayuza Kikoro.

He was a molester, who had just tried to do something horrible to his own daughter.

Mr. Ayuza put his hands up and started talking, "Now, Ms. Amora, I know what this looks like, but-"

"Cut the fucking crap, you bastard! Just go to hell." She said the last part quietly, and took the note she had been holding the entire time, using the pen to write his name in the blank she had left. She threw them both back into the satchel over her shoulder, and took out her stun-gun.

The corrupt man eyed it carefully, and sneered over at her, "Do you think, for one second, that anyone will believe this coming from you, or that electrocuting was just out of self-defense?" He was growing desperate, and she could tell from his rushed question. _Good, sweat, it'll all be over soon anyways._ But then the thought that the Death Note might not be real crossed her mind again, and she felt sadness at the idea, but she was prepared for it.

The girl hadn't moved and the man's throat was starting to itch. He unconsciously scratched at it, and didn't stop. He soon noticed this, and so did the girl. Hope sprang into her eyes, but the man was terrified: why couldn't he move his hand away? His other hand went up to his throat as well, and the scratching grew deeper, starting to rip the skin open. Ayuza had never felt so powerless, so scared. He had come to rape and traumatize his daughter and leave her in the woods to die, not to kill himself. But he couldn't stop, and soon, he felt the rush of blood as it cascaded down his front and down his throat.

The blackness started to swallow him up, but then his body moved toward the nearest tree and his blood-covered hands started write something, then they fell, along with him, to the ground. The blackness swallowed him up into nothingness...

Sai stared at the man's body, and then at the words he had written on the tree trunk with his own blood: "Vengeance makes sense, and justice does not." In some part of her mind, she was filled with glee, at dispensing of this human trash, at the notebook's authenticity. But most of her just felt numb. She had just killed one of the few people who had shown her kindness, and she had done so gleefully.

She didn't care anymore. She forgot about it all for a little while, and then picked up the girl and carried her out of the forest. She had become paralyzed with fear when she first saw her father's blood start to flow, and she was no different now. She had barely even registered the girl picking her up and carrying her out into the open, and then to a police station. The little one did eventually notice how the girl didn't mention it was her father who had tried to hurt her, or who her father was, just that she had been attacked and this tall girl had saved her. That was not what had happened, and she knew it, but she kept quiet. Instead, she stared at this girl with the dead, golden eyes, and memorized her face. She would find her again, she silently vowed, and when she did, she was going to latch on to her and never let go. _Amora..._

**Thanks again for reading ^^, and feel free to write a review...**_  
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	4. Third Encounter

_'THREE DAYS LATER'_

She was sitting in the living room, staring at the black screen of the television set. It had been three days since she had saved that girl, who had stared at her for what seemed like an eternity, obvious adoration in her eyes. Sai felt bad for her, but she couldn't babysit a little brat who wouldn't stop staring at her, so she gave them the information she needed to and left off for her house. Her parents weren't home then, either, but they had been at some point since there was a new note on the counter informing Sai that they had both gone on business trips and not to call unless the authorities were involved.

A thought kept gathering at the back of her head, or more like an idea. It was too blurry to decipher it, so she didn't pay attention to it. She stared up at the ceiling and thought for a while. She had just proven the Death Note's authenticity, and the rules that had applied did come to be during her experiment, so it was safe to assume that all of the other rules would be true. They would all still be observed, of course, since she didn't trust the additional rules out of principle. The only name currently written in it was Ayuza Kikoro. She didn't want to carelessly use the Death Note without a plan in mind, if she decided to use it at all. The idea forming started to get clearer for some reason, but it was still fuzzy.

Sai began to silently brood for a while, and didn't even notice when the television set suddenly clicked on until a newsman set off a confetti stick and laughed at whatever joke he had made. This wasn't unusual, her parents would always set a special timer on the TV so that it went on and off at irregular intervals. "To make people think we're still here when we're not." That had been her mother's explanation.

She was about to switch it off, when a new story caught her attention: "MAN SUSPECTED OF SEXUALLY ASSAULTING A PRE-SCHOOLER NEXT TO HER NOW-DECEASED FAMILY WAS CAUGHT AND ARRESTED, THOUGH HE ESCAPED ONLY HOURS LATER AND IS NOW ON THE RUN..." A tan newswoman was speaking into her microphone, listing all of the known details, and then continuing on to consult the young girl's new therapist about her traumatized state. Sai's hand reached for the notebook she had started to carry in her satchel, and unhooked the cap on the pen. "Authorities are strongly advising that anyone who sees this man, known as ..., should immediately contact the police with the whereabouts. However, those who encounter this man should not try to engage him in any way." While the woman was talking, an image of the man was blown up to fit the entire screen, which was all Sai needed. She put the end of her pen to the paper.

But then the clouded idea that had seemed insignificant before suddenly became clearer, and she stopped before she could write down the man's name. She had been about to kill him because she had seen him on TV and he was an alleged murderer/assaulter. She could not do something like that, she didn't even know the man, and he could have been framed for the wrongdoing. Besides, Sai hated those brats who relied on others when a situation got tough, and then seemed at a loss for words if no one was around to shoulder the burden for them. Those kinds of people pissed Sai off the most, mainly because she had used to be one of them. But that was over, and she wouldn't spoil other children based on a television broadcast. No, she had a completely different idea in her mind, and she was going to do something a lot different than judging criminals, like the mass murderer Kira had started to do around ten years ago, only stopping six years later. With her new idea in mind, Sai went to her room and started the necessary preparations she would need.

_'FIVE DAYS LATER'_

Her parents had gotten home just yesterday. Currently, her dad was sitting on a couch in her living room, and her mother was at her "lawyer" Mr. Kukai's office. Sai was certain that her father wouldn't hear anything she was doing, even if it was loud, due to her room being on the opposite end of the house and one-story up.

She may not have acted like it, but she was an amazing computer genius, and great at arts & crafts, too. If she was going to use the notebook, she would have to hide it. She preferred the motto, "hidden in plain sight", and did just as much, though not entirely. She had stitched a new cover for the Death Note. It was much like its original front, but had white floral patterns acting as borders on the black background, and the words 'Death Note' were stitched in a gothic font. (After the Kira killings stopped, many speculated at what he had been using to kill his victims. Sai was shocked to find that someone had actually guessed the name of it so accurately.) If anyone ever laid hands on the book, she could just explain how it was all the rage amongst teens those days, and she simply had to have something to make her fit in. With her background, a psychological approach in evasion was not a bad idea. Of course, Sai also added numerous, regular notebook pages to the front of the book, as well as at frequent intervals throughout the rest of it. She even went so far as to carefully glue and align strips to the original notebook, making some pages part Death Note, part ordinary scrap paper. She used some special tools she had obtained through certain methods and began to make all of the added-in notebook paper look the same as the Death Note itself. She marked the strips in a special way, using tiny indentations and marks that would seem ordinary on such an old-looking book. It had taken two whole nights to do this task, but it was well worth it. After she did that, she started to add journal entries to the front of the book, one for the day before and another for that day. She knew the marks could be tested for age, so she didn't try to fake when she started using it. She made absolutely certain the entries all sounded like something she would write, and finally took the notebook to its hiding spot. Unbeknownst to her parents, Sai had cut a square hole in the top of her ceiling in a way that would allow it to be pushed up and be able settle back into its original position. When flipped around, it seemed as though it was just a regular board that had been cut out, but there was a crack along the side that served to keep the hidden compartment closed. There was a special handle on the inside that needed to be pushed down with a sliver as tiny as the crack. If anyone tried to open the crack with anything besides a sliver, a chunk of wood would just break off, and the wood was special in that Sai had replace the actual cut-out with one that didn't sound hollow even with a tiny space inside of it.

Fashioning the wood to be like that had made her stay up until the bright hours of morning, but it had needed to be done. The next night, when her parents had returned, Sai spent the entire time with her face glued to the computer. She had obtained a special CD (again from a private transaction) that had enabled her to be online and just on her computer without any information being recorded anywhere. She modified the disk to instead record a certain history, so as not to arouse any suspicions as to why she was on her computer but no history was present. After she did that, she began to create a new website. She copied some of the data from the disk and modified it to happen whenever this website was up and Sai herself had clicked on various different links and different buttons before actually pulling up the site. She also set up the notifications to only show themselves after she typed a specific code on the keyboard and pushed random and specific buttons. With this finally done, she moved on to creating the actual website. She didn't need anything flashy, just something that would get the job done. She set up a dark gray box in the middle of the black background. She then set up two different slots: the first asked the user to type in their birthday, the second slot asked the user to type in the name of the person they wished to take revenge against and kill.

Even the users of this program would have to go through various links and punch in different codes in order to access it, but that was the part that Sai found the easiest of all. Teenagers were scared, and so were many adults, when faced with telling the truth, but they weren't afraid of keeping a secret or telling one that would be just like those rumors spread around school. That was what was great about her plan: she would use the facade of the site just being a rumor, a whispered conversation in a corridor, to actually accomplish her goals. What most detectives and policemen hated the most was having to get mixed up in a rumor that changes from ear to ear as it continues down the line. Only important information would be kept whole, but the rest was up to everyone's imagination. Sai felt yet another smile touch her face. Ever since she had started doing this, she would smile on a regular basis. She knew not to do it out in public, where everyone thought she was a cold and moping girl, but she could do it in private all she wanted, for now, at least.

The birth-dates themselves weren't all that important to Sai, but they could be used to trace the location of the user as well as the identity of them. She could run background checks on all of them and then decide whether she wished to help them or not, depending on what their stories were. She wouldn't just write down the name of someone who was taking a little girl's pudding cup at every recess. That would just be too wrong. This way, she could help people obtain revenge without letting it get out of hand. She supposed she should think of a way to get to and from her clients, or some other form of communication to describe her services, but she was tired that night, so she would just think about it the next day.

The next day, Sai went home from school and sat down in her chair, starting her chains of rumors in different locations throughout the U.S. and covering up each of her tracks in the process. After that, she would only need to brainstorm the actual communication between her and the user. It was during this train of thought that a dark shadow had loomed over her, coming from her window. She was temporarily frozen in fear, but didn't show it.

"I see that you're the one that picked up my Death Note, Ms. Amora Sai. And it seems you've already seen that it really does work." The voice came from the shadow's source.

Calmly, Sai spun her computer chair to face the ugly creature, and replied, "Yes, Mr. Shinigami, I have, and I have been expecting you to come for quite some time now."

**As usual, thank you for reading my story and feel free to leave a review and tell me what you think ^^...**


	5. Ryuk the Shinigami

The shinigami stared at her for a few seconds, and then started laughing. He sat on the windowsill and continued on with his gleeful tirade.

"Is there something funny about my expectancy?" Sai was fretting on the inside; she hadn't expected a reaction like this from him. Of course, she kept her eyes an icy gold and set her mouth in a firm line. She crossed her hands over her chest and waited.

"Yes….. and no. It's just that it's not the first time a human has said that to me, and I didn't expect to meet anyone like him again." The shinigami's words made Sai guess that her assumptions were right.

"So, was it your notebook that Kira used to kill all of those criminals?"

"Why, yes, yes it was. Yagami Light was a real bright kid and perfect in everything: schoolwork, family work, and especially acting. That kid really took me for one hell of a ride, but in the end, he was still just a human posing as God. But how did you figure that out? It's not as if the humans investigating Kira released that kind of information to the public." The shinigami stared at her with curious and huge eyes.

"All it took was proving the Death Note to be real. Kira was a mass murderer who took out most of his victims when they conveniently had heart-attacks. And one of the first rules written in the Death Note is that someone will die of a heart-attack in forty seconds once their name is written down. It was as simple as connecting the dots. I also assume that he is the one who wrote the additional rules in the notebook, though I have not tested them all to see if they are trustworthy. Oh, and you already know this, but," she stood up and walked closer to him, extending her hand, "I'm Amora Sai, first-year student at Daikoku Private Academy. It's nice to meet you, Mr. ...?"

"You can call me Ryuk." Ryuk stretched his long arm out as well and they shook hands. "Is that how you usually greet people, looking at them as though they're a different species that doesn't concern you in the slightest?" He had noticed her hollow eyes. Unlike most others, he didn't take offense at her cold gaze, and saw that it was what brought out the beauty in her face.

"No, I typically try not to make people feel awkward, but you _are_ technically a different species to me." He had to smile at that, she was right.

"I guess you're one smart cookie to have come to all that on your own and to have found the notebook, which is quite a relief because I don't feel like following an idiot around until he does something stupid. Light was a different story..." And so Ryuk spent hours telling Alice all about Light and his life, the Kira he had come to be and all of his brilliant plans to outsmart L. Alice grew pale while listening to him speak about Kira and his fight against another genius. Her attention was focused completely on the shinigami in front of her as he continued on. He went on to L's eventual death, and his successors that took over. And finally, Ryuk went on to Light's defeat and Ryuk himself writing his name in his Death Note. Sai stayed completely quiet during all of it. She needed to learn as much as she could if she wanted to be better than Light was. "So," the god had finally finished his story, "are you going to be the 5th Kira, or just some stupid kid who kills all those who cross her?"

Sai couldn't help but smirk at him. "Neither."

"Are you relinquishing ownership of the Death Note then?" Ryuk said after a short pause.

"Nope."

"Are you just going to hold on to it and make sure no one else gets a hold of it and uses it for their own benefits, then?"

Ryuk's slight bewilderment made her smile, "Nope."

"Then just what is it you plan to do with the notebook?" He didn't like the idea of being attached to the girl until something happened to her.

"I don't want to pass judgment on others so people can feel good and safe with themselves. I want to help those people feel better, but I'm not going to bear their burden for them. I'm not going to be some stupid, self-righteous Kira, but I'm not going to lie around, either. So I've decided to do something that will make sure all is right and the cosmos isn't thrown into a new alignment." She turned smug eyes on him.

"So, you're going to be neutral… and not neutral at the same time?"

"I guess that is one way to look at it."

"What is your actual plan with the Death Note?" Ryuk was finding this girl to be more and more interesting by the second. He had never met someone who wanted to be more than bad, but less than good.

Alice told him of the preparations she had already made, and saw his eyes widen in wonderment. She could tell that he was comparing her to Yagami Light, but that didn't matter to her all that much. She then went on to explain her motive: "I want to help people feel better, but I won't shoulder their burden for them. If they want to feel better about themselves, then they will have to kill to obtain it. I will offer to help them make things easier. If they wish to use my services, then they themselves will write down the name of the one which they wish vengeance against, and kill them however they like. They won't get arrested for it because they won't be there when these deaths happen, which will only increase the amount of users asking for my help."

Ryuk's curiosity grew larger, "Why?"

"Let me explain, people will only be allowed to write in the Death Note if I find their stories to be worthy enough, so unnecessary deaths are not caused. Of course, I will also run background checks on the victims themselves and hear their end of the story, but that will only affect the outcome in a minor way, depending on how determined the user is to kill them. Of course, killing is a sin, and cannot be tolerated within our society, so, and I will explicitly tell the user before he accepts my services, I myself will write their name down and manipulate their deaths to occur three months later. All users will die of a painless heart attack. It is in this way that they will compensate for killing someone else."

"Are you sure anyone will even accept something like that?" The shinigami seemed skeptical.

Sai fixed her gaze upon Ryuk, obviously sizing him up, and said, is as pleasant a voice she could manage, "You have been around for centuries, Ryuk, and have failed to notice that some people's lives have been ruined beyond repair by another person, someone who either can't help fix it or doesn't care? For some people, death is not the scariest option out there, and these same people are the users that will use my services, because they know what it is really like to live in this world, and they want to feel good before they die, by ruining the ones who ruined them."

He was amazed at the angle she had taken, but another question formed in his mind, "What do you get out of all of this? Why exactly are you doing it?"

"You want to know why? I look around a street full of happy people, and I see someone smiling a little too wide, with a little too much enthusiasm, and I know they are suicidal. I look around a classroom, and I see ignorant teenagers who barely care if they hurt someone so long as they get whatever they want. I see a little kid's show and I wonder why it is that we try to hide the world from children when they will soon have to face it themselves. What do I get out of all of this? I'm not looking for something to satisfy me, though that's probably what I will get before long if someone decides to thank me, though that probably won't be the case. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, what I'm planning on doing is wrong in a lot of senses, but I want to see someone who is suffering help themselves, for once. That's all. Why am I doing this? Because I'm bored with weaklings who want to fight back but don't even get the chance to."

"You humans are so interesting, especially you smart ones. It looks like I'll be entertained again for a little while." He smiled again, and Sai couldn't help but smile with him.

"Would you like anything to eat, Ryuk?" With that question, Ryuk's grin widened even further.

"Do you have any apples?"

**Thanks for reading...**


	6. Games and Decisions

She had gone into the kitchen and grabbed several apples. But, instead of just going back up to her room to hand them to Ryuk, she washed them all and cut them into thick slices. She emptied the slices into a large bowl and headed back upstairs.

The shinigami was now laying across her bed and staring at her computer. "I've got the apples." He immediately sat up and stared at them longingly. Sai threw him a slice, but kept the rest in her lap as she sat in her desk chair across from him. He immediately ate it.

"You gonna hand me the rest of those now?" She was watching him in a curious way.

"Nope. I wanna prove something first."

"And what's that?"

"Yagami Light, assuming it was him, wrote a little something on the last line of the last page of the death note. It said, 'Do you know that shinigamis like apples?' When you asked for them, I thought I'd try this out."

He looked a little annoyed at not getting all of the apples. "Yeah, well, we do. I even get withdrawal symptoms after eating even a small bite of an apple and not getting anymore."

Sai smiled, "Do you think it was a great idea to tell me that, then? Are you this open with anyone who talks to you? I hope not out of concern for the Death Note."

This girl was starting to get cocky with him, but it was amusing, so he let it slide. "For your information, I go about my public business differently from my private business. Now, are you going to hand me those apples now?"

"Let's play a little game first." Ryuk thought about how different this girl was from Light, but how similar she was at the same time.

"So, what kind of game are we talking about here?"

"Oh, a simple question and answer game. I'll ask you a question and you'll give me an answer. If I'm satisfied with it, I'll give you an apple slice. If I'm not, I'll push you until I find an answer that is satisfying."

"You sure you want to be playing games like this with a shinigami? Don't you have better things to do?"

"At the moment, this game is of the upmost importance. So, shall we begin, or do you not want to play?" She brought an apple slice to her mouth and chewed it for a long time for good measure.

"I'll play your game, but only because I'm interested in what you'll ask me. But, be warned, I won't be able to answer all of your questions. As long as you understand that, we can begin." He smiled and waited for her to start.

She straightened her expression out so he wouldn't be able to interpret her reactions, and began, "First question: Does this Death Note truly belong to me?"

He wondered at her first question, but didn't say anything, instead just replying, "Yes."

She threw him a slice. "Why was it in the human world to begin with?"

"I was bored after the Kira case was taken care of and I came down here to see if I could play around again." He kept his motives for wanting to play with Near again to himself. He also wanted to obtain his original Death Note.

She threw him another slice. "Are the additional rules in this notebook completely valid?"

"Completely, Light added them on when he thought he would still become God so he could pass it on to whoever he chose to succeed him."

Another slice. "Do you think you know what the main cause of Light's screw-up was towards the end?"

"Light was great, but he let it all go to his head, got cocky, and lost because of it." He got another slice.

"Can you physically lift me up?"

Ryuk's face scrunched up in confusion, "Why the hell would you want to know that?"

"Just answer the question."

"Yes, I would be able to do something like that. I could pick you up and fly you over to Manassas if I wanted to." He got two slices for that answer.

"If I traded for the shinigami eyes, would you tell me how much longer I had left to live?"

"Not a chance."

She didn't like that answer. "Let me rephrase, if I did the trade, would you truthfully tell me, or give me a hint, about whether I would die shortly or if I had some time left?"

He thought about that for a moment. "I can try to give you a hint, but that's about it." Another slice.

"If I asked you to physically transport me somewhere, would you be willing to do it?" She went back to the question before.

His eyes narrowed. "Sorry, kid. By principle, I'm not allowed to do anything that would help or prevent someone's death."

"What if I told you that I would find a way to get to the person anyways, or communicate, and you taking me there wouldn't help or prevent anything?"

Ryuk stared at her for a while, lost in thought. He eventually let up and replied, "I suppose that would be okay then...," Sai mentally jumped for joy, "but why would I want to?"

She cocked her head, "If you want to be entertained, don't you think you would want to do it to make sure you're with me the entire time?"

"I'd be with you anyways."

"What if I promised to give you apples in return for transporting me?"

He smirked, "Fine, I'll do it, for the apples and so I can watch and see what happens." She threw him two more slices.

"Once a section of the Death Note has been used, can the markings be erased and the page used again?"

"No, once a spot has been taken up by a name, or a name and a death description, it becomes ordinary notebook paper."

She handed him yet another slice. She still had a ton in the big bowl on her lap. "One more thing, if anything should happen like it did with Light, can I expect that you will keep our arrangement a secret as well as any other transactions we have?"

"My mouth is closed." He waited for the next apple slice, and Sai gave him the whole bowl. He immediately started to dig in.

"Can I ask you a question now? Where is the hole in your ceiling?" He hadn't seen anything like that so far.

She stood up on her bed next to him and removed a paper the same color as her ceiling that had been there. The edges had been taped down in a way that made the indentations invisible. Ryuk had to admit that he was really impressed with this girl. He wondered if she would eventually go mad with power as Light had, but then reconsidered. This girl was completely different from Light in that aspect. She didn't act like she thought everything was going to be alright, she obviously knew it wasn't. Not to mention she realized that she was never going to be considered in a good light after what she was planning to do, and she didn't try to use helping others as her excuse. No, it would be interesting to see this one play out.

Sai left the room then to go get some soda.

"Amora Sai, will you succumb to the power and fall horribly, or will you stay sane and keep your balance?" He chuckled a little at the thought, and ate another apple slice.

**Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave a review...**

**As Emi Fumiko says:  
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**Reviews = Love  
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**Love = Inspiration  
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**Inspiration = More Chapters  
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	7. First Client

_'TWO WEEKS LATER'_

It had taken a full two weeks for her rumors to increase and spread. It had been slow at first, with a few referencing posts here and there, but then it had spread like wildfire, and teens were logging on and carrying out hour-long conversations about what it would be like if it was true, and who they would take revenge on.

It was on the fourteenth day that Sai had received her first request. She had waited for quite a while, pulling up a blank notifications box whenever she got the chance to. It had been annoying at first, but she quickly fought that emotion. She shouldn't have been taking pleasure from it in the first place. She was there to help troubled people, not satisfy her boredom. Of course, Ryuk was always following close behind her. She didn't know why she wasted her money buying apples for him when he was invisible and could just go take some. But she was willing to do it so long as he kept up on his end of the deal, and tonight was the night for him to do it.

Born on January 31, 1998, her first user had typed in the name _Guy Bato_ in the second box. Sai traced the request to a girl in Denver, Colorado. Upon further investigation, which only took a few seconds to pull up, she saw that her name was Kimi Moka, whose parents had both fallen victim to a horrible car crash. She then pulled up info on the target, and was provided with a picture of a burly man in his late twenties who was under suspicion of being a major drug dealer.

She closed all of the programs down, double-checking the history just to be sure. If an error ever occurred with her high-tech program, she might be able to fix it within the first few moments, but after that, she wouldn't be able to do anything else.

Sai then opened up a crate of apples she had bought and placed in the kitchen. (Her parents had actually been curious of it, but she assured them that they were bought with her own money.) She took out two apples, washed them, and climbed the stairs back up to her room.

"I assume we'll be starting this little business now, won't we?" Ryuk questioned. He was once lying down, but had sat up when he saw her switch off her computer and come back from leaving with apples.

"Yes, that's right. The user is a girl known as Kimi Moka, and she wants to kill a man named Guy Bato. If you don't mind, I would like you to take me to this address right now." Sai showed the shinigami the client's address. He took the slip of paper from her and studied it.

"This is pretty far away." He said at last.

"I know. How fast can you fly?" Her face was as expressionless as ever, but her eyes held a slight nervousness in them.

He thought that one over. "I don't really need to fly there. If I wanted to, I could just let you enter the Shinigami Dimension with me and come out in Denver. It would be much faster." Her eyes grew calculating.

"Would I even be able to get in? I am a human, and the Shinigami Realm doesn't sound like it was a place made for other people to just waltz in and teleport to different places."

She was right on that one, "You're right, if you tried to enter into that world as you are now, you'd be burned to bits and immediately die." He laughed at the thought.

Sai just glared at him. "So, are we going to fly there then?"

"Nope. I can transport you there easily without having to go through my world to do it. I won't end up in a specific place, but I will end up in Denver. I could probably just carry you from there." She liked the idea and said it was fine. Ryuk came towards her and picked her up like one would with a baby. He stood still for a second. "You better hold your breath. The ride can be suffocating at times." She did as she was told.

She heard a large _whoosh_ as the air around her sped up, but then it all faded seconds later, and Sai wasn't in her room anymore. They were in some sort of farming pasture with hay bales at various points on the field. A man was walking behind one of them, and she stiffened. She knew how freaky it would look to be floating in mid-air with her current position.

"Don't worry," Ryuk chimed in, "as long as I'm holding you, you are technically property of the Shinigami Realm, and no one can see you, much like with the Death Note and how people can't see me until they touch it." She relaxed.

He then took off into the air, extending his small black wings, and flew off in some direction, presumably towards Ms. Moka...

They arrived at an expensive looking apartment building, and the shinigami flew up to the top floor, where the girl's room was supposed to be. He perched on a windowsill and gently lifted it open with the hand that wasn't carrying Sai. She watched in amazement, "You can open anything you want to?"

"Yes, but there isn't much point in doing it just to get stuff since human items aren't really all that useful to us." He slipped inside easily, surprising her as she considered how tall he was. "Once I set you down, you will belong in the human world again, and people can see you." That interested Sai, so she stored the information away for later reference. Sitting on the bed, she noticed that there were running water noises coming from a door off to the side, and, after checking the second door directly across the bed to reveal a hallway, she determined that it was a bathroom and Ms. Moka was taking a shower. The water turned off a few minutes later.

A girl who looked to be in middle school walked out with a towel wrapped around her body and another wrapping around her hair. She was pale, and not very tall, also very ordinary-looking if Sai compared her to some of the girls at Daikoku. The girl stopped after walking two steps out of the bathroom, staring at the beautiful, yet cold girl draped across her bed. She was about to scream for her aunt, who she had come to live with, when the figure addressed her, "I assume you are Kimi Moka?" She nodded. "I am the one you contacted," Sai thought quickly, she didn't want to give out her real name, "Jaakuna Herupa, it's nice to meet you." She extended her hand to the girl, who shakily took it.

"Jaakuna Herupa? As in wicked helper?" Her voice came out in a squeak, and Herupa loved how uncomfortable she was making this girl. She nodded, waiting for the girl to recall the request she had sent her. She didn't seem to be getting it, though.

Sai sighed. _If you're gonna have the balls to contact me, at least remember that you did it._ Out loud, she said, "You heard a rumor floating around school about how you could get revenge against someone you really hated, and followed all of the instructions you heard. While some weren't important, others were. In the end, you pulled up a webpage with a black background and a dark grey box in the middle with two slots: one for your birthday, and one for the name of the person you really hated." The girl looked scared, and like she didn't comprehend a single word coming out of the older girl's mouth.

Ryuk laughed. "You're probably freaking her out so much that she can't hear a word you're saying." Sai's face scrunched up in concentration, and she got up off the bed and walked toward her. "Do you remember doing any of this? Or did you think it was all some joke and nothing would happen? Thought you would just make a bet with your friends to see if you would be visited by some spooky creep?" Sai was sneering in her face and had her pushed up against a wall. Moka's face was lowered, so she couldn't see her expression. Still she wasn't all that surprised when the girl's hands came up to grip her wrists, saying, in clenched voice, "So what if it was a joke at first? I never though anyone would actually come to help me. I was just fooling around at the time, but now that you're here, I guess I can stop joking and we can start getting serious." There, it had only taken a little push to get the girl out of her scared state. She could see out of the corner of her eye that Ryuk had settled into a relaxing position on the bed and was listening in to their conversation.

Jaakuna Herupa backed away from her, and asked her the question that would mostly decide what happened next, "So, what's your story, kid? Why should I help you?"


	8. Stories

_'FOUR YEARS LATER'_

Amora Sai sat back in her chair and let out a pent-up sigh. It had been a long night, with over twenty clients she needed to visit. Her parents were gone for the month, so it was alright for her to go directly to her clients for a while. A few weeks after her first request, she realized that her parents might come up to her room at some point while she was gone, and notice her missing. So, she decided to bribe Ryuk a little more.

"Hey, Ryuk, do you think you could do something for me?"

The god seemed hesitant, but he knew that she always rewarded him for what he did. It was starting to seem like he was her dog, but he reminded himself that he could kill her whenever he wanted. "What is it?"

"The thing is, my parents aren't the most attentive when it comes to me, but they may come up here at some point." He had noticed that. The girl herself never showed whether it bothered her or not, but her parents tried to ignore her existence. Sometimes he would see a sad expression cross her face when she was sleeping, and more than once he could swear she had whispered her mother or father's name. She would never admit to it, and he wasn't interested enough to bring it up. "I know this is a lot to ask from you, but would you mind going alone for a while? I need to be here if they come, but I also need someone to go to the clients. That's where you'll come in if you agree to help me. It will be the same thing that we usually do, just without me. Can you tell when someone really wants something?"

"Of course, I've been carrying you to the users and watching all of their stories for two weeks now. I already know what a human looks like when they really want something. Are you asking me to listen to their stories and come back to you to get the Death Note for them?"

"Yes, but a little differently. I know you love stories, so listening to them won't be a problem, but you won't come back to me for the Death Note. I'll give you a very small piece of it. You can have them touch it to see you, and then use it if you decide it's worth it. The last names will go on the front, and the first names will go on the back. This will make sure that they can't reuse the paper. Of course, special requests will be brought back to me, and I can write it down and leave enough space to only put down the name. You can report back to me when you're done and tell me everything, and then I can write down their names."

The shinigami thought about it for a while. He looked at her briefly, and answered: "Alright, I'll do it. I don't mind going around and listening to all of these whiny people, but I'm gonna need some extra apples for the extra work."

Sai smirked. "I've already ordered a few more crates, so you should be set." Ryuk smiled widely. That always won him over. She resorted to having only the shinigami go whenever she was being spied on or in danger of being discovered missing. In truth, she had come across a stalker from the new first-years during the third month of her second year. He had been a popular kid with girls hanging around him all of the time. They were mostly attracted to his dark looks and black hair. Amazing that he had turned out to be a stalker, but you couldn't judge people by their cover. He had followed her home on several occasions, later saying it was to 'protect' her since she always went through molester territory. Eventually, she had had enough and kicked his ass until he agreed to leave her alone.

Her reminiscing led her to the memory of Kimi Moka. In fact, it had been at least four years since her first user. Moka had been a regular school girl, going from home, to school, to hanging out with her friends, and repeat.

**THE FIRST USER**

The girl was shaking again, afraid to look Herupa in the eyes apparently. The dark girl had just explained what would happen to her if she decided to go through with everything. But she composed herself enough to ask if she could get dressed real quick. Sai nodded to the bathroom to signal her to proceed. She came out three minutes later and sat across from the bed, where Jaakuna Herupa and the currently invisible Ryuk lay. Herupa's body was all the way at the bottom, with her face propped up in her hands and her legs dangling off on the other end. Ryuk was laying long-ways, though his legs were pulled up enough not to rest on her body. His upper body was turned towards Moka as well, and his head rested on one of his hands while the other was draped over his stomach.

The raven beauty was staring at Moka again, and she felt so cold under that gaze. She almost thought she would freeze right then and there. "I realize that I don't have it as bad as others do," she started in a timid voice, "but I know that this pain won't go away if I just sit here and do nothing about it." Her hands were scrunching up over her lap, and the girl still wouldn't look Herupa in the eyes. "I fought with my parents all the time: about homework, grades...boys, friends, my hygiene... but I loved them so much. I loved the way my mom would sometimes bake these huge muffins and force us to taste her newest _flavor_." Her voice caught on the word flavor, and her eyes started to water a bit, her voice becoming thicker.

"One day, my parents got in this fight with each other over my grades. My dad was saying that I needed to join a study session, and my mom was saying that she would be just fine with doing it herself, that she didn't want me to get distracted with all of the other kids there. They fought back and forth, and I was so pissed that they thought they could just decide my life for me. I told them that, and then stormed out.

"I ended up walking to my favorite coffee shop that I hanged out with friends at. I sat in our usual seat, and I was texting all of my friends about what had just happened. I was so busy I didn't notice this guy just slide into my booth. He started talking to me, asking my name and all that. I was so freaked out because he had this huge gray coat on and these black suit pants, just like those stalkers in movies. He even had black, reflective glasses over his eyes. I was planning on sliding out and running for it, but then he started talking about my parents. He slid a folder from his coat over to me and told me to give it to my dad, but not to look inside. I wasn't scared after that, a lot of people came up to me and asked me to hand envelopes to my father since he was a lawyer, so I just took it without caring."

A fierce look of regret crossed her face, but she continued on. "He asked me something weird after that. He asked me if I loved my parents." Her eyes glazed over for a long moment, and she continued on: "I... I... I said I hated them for always fighting over what was wrong with me. I said that I wished they weren't my parents… that I was born with different people..." She was quiet for so long that Herupa was wondering if she had started crying, but she was just staring at the floor. "I said something I shouldn't have... I said I wish they would just crash and die... I didn't mean it, I just said it because that's what teens _DO_ these days, exaggerate... I didn't mean it."

Now her shoulders were shaking. "I left after that, and gave the envelope to my dad. He started acting all weird after that day, and I always wondered why. Even my mom was a little off. A few weeks later they told me they wanted to go out to my dad's firm to get a few papers, and they left me at home. That guy was knocking on my door the moment they left. He told me that they had called and told him to pick me up and take me to the firm... My parents often did stuff like that, too: calling on their friends to come get me since they didn't think I was mature enough to drive with my friends. They usually needed me to come talk to the kids that came in, saying they would feel more relaxed around me, because, I don't know, I was that kind of person... He started driving, and I started texting."

She started breathing fast. "All of a sudden, he stopped the car and kicked me out... He said something about enjoying the show. He sped off after that, and I saw a car coming towards me. When it got closer, I saw my parents, and started waving at them like crazy. They noticed me and started towards me..." Her hands were shaking much harder now, and her voice was more constricted. "About five or six cars came out of nowhere... and they all started ramming my parents' car. One would smash into it... and then another, and another... It wouldn't stop, I was screaming so bad… their blood... it was all over the windshield. I shouted at them to just stop... They didn't, not until the police showed up.

"They told me later on that the man I had talked to was Guy Bato, a criminal suspected of being a major drug dealer. My father was working on a case that would potentially prove him guilty of many violent crimes in order to preserve his dealership. The envelope he gave me had all of the needed evidence in it, with one last piece that would arrive in two weeks after the envelope was first given. That's why my dad had gone to his office, and my mom had went since she was his assistant. Bato had been leading my dad into a trap so he could kill him, but he did it so that he could make them feel miserable while they died... The last piece of 'evidence' had turned out to be a recording of what I said that day in the cafe... and they were listening to it as they were driving home and found me on the side of the road..." Her eyes started to shed tears and her face turned a dark shade of red. Then her eyes began to fill with anger, and she was finally able to look Sai in the eyes. "I want him dead, so, so bad. I want him to feel the same pain they did, and I want him to die helpless." She had turned stone-cold. She wasn't joking.

Sai walked up to her and slipped the Death Note under her clenched hands. She looked at it in wonder, then glanced up at Sai and her face turned from sadness to horror. Moka had seen Ryuk. "Don't worry," she quickly reassured, "he comes with the book in your hands." Herupa opened up to the very first area that was clearly the Death Note itself, and pointed. "If you want him to suffer, write down how you want him to die, with his last and first name, with his face pictured in your mind. Do you understand?"

"Will this even work?" She was back to being annoyingly timid.

"Do you not see the shinigami lying across your bed?" Moka nodded and bent over the book in concentration. During her story Herupa had silently asked Ryuk to go check out the man, and he had come back moments later to reveal that he really was what his reputation said. She didn't need to go talk to him about anything after all. The girl suddenly started writing. When she was done, she handed it back to Jaakuna Herupa, who looked over what was written. _While walking home after making a deal with a valuable customer, Guy Bato was suddenly attacked by a bunch of rabid animals nearby. He was ripped limb from limb until he finally died from blood-loss and the removal of his last arm and leg._ This girl really was out for revenge. Respect filled Sai, and she said her farewells to the girl, hugging her and saying to live her last three months to their fullest. She just nodded and didn't say anything. She and Ryuk left for home.

Guy Bato was reported dead the next day, after being torn limb from limb by rabid animals. That was the first night Sai slipped into a peaceful dream.

_'BACK IN THE PRESENT'_

It seemed like that had all happened just yesterday. Anyways, Ryuk and she had started going out every night as the requests began to pile in faster and faster. Sometimes she became exhausted with how much there was, but she wouldn't stop, not for anything in the world. This was her life now, she needed to help these people, and these people wanted her help. She would occasionally read about one of her client's deaths in the newspapers, especially when they were close by.

It was almost unbelievable how many people were hurting so badly. Even famous actors and writers. After her first user, Sai had decided that it was best if she didn't let anyone see what she actually looked like, so she wore a mask and cloak that she asked Ryuk to hold on to so they were invisible. She continued on like this, and some people had started to call her a reaper, but the name 'Jaakuna Herupa' stayed as the main way to refer to her. Only a handful of requests had been rejected when she heard what they had to say, mainly due to their idiocy. Others were turned away because they misunderstood their target, and Sai had proven it to them.

Other than that, she had stayed the same as always at school and at home. No one would suspect what she was doing, and she liked it that way. At times she would feel really lonely, but then she just turned to Ryuk and talked to him for hours at a time. They were really starting to forge a connection, which is why he usually accepted any tasks she gave him so willingly.

It was summer vacation, and Sai had surprised everyone by suddenly getting the highest scores in every subject during the final exams. Everyone thought she had cheated. And she was fine with that since there was no proof to it. She had never said she was stupid to anyone, she just wasn't motivated enough to do anything she was told to do. But, hey, who cared about that since she was finally going to be able to go to college and become one step closer to leaving behind her life with her parents.

**NEAR'S NEW HEADQUARTERS**

A new intern walked up to the famous Near uncertainly. He was in his twenties now, but still looked much like his younger self, just longer and with L's famous sleepless eyes. "Sir, here are the reports you asked for, as well as the internet records of all of the individuals requested."

Near barely looked up from his palace of cards that he was gradually making larger. "Thank you; please stack it next to that deck of cards." He pointed randomly to one of the many stacks he had pulled out. She placed it down and walked back to her desk.

After using all of the decks, he picked up the folders and briefly perused them all. It was a list of random people who seemed to be suddenly falling victim to heart-attacks practically every day. But there was nothing to tie any of the individuals together.

"It looks as though another twisted Kira has shown up, which means that somewhere, there is another notebook, and someone has been using it for quite a while." Absentmindedly, he flicked one of his fingers, and watched as his palace slowly collapsed to the ground.

**As usual, thanks for reading my fan-fiction, and feel free to leave a comment/review**


	9. College Entrance Exams

**Hi, and thanks for reading my fan-fiction so far. A special thanks to Chester-Grey for my second review.  
**

**Oh, and I forgot this with my other chapters, but here is the disclaimer: I do not, in any way, own Death Note. The only thing I own is this fan-fiction and my OC's...  
**

**NEAR'S HEADQUARTERS**

"Ms. Guyette?" Near spoke to the intern who had handed him the documents. She was a dirty blonde who wore female business casual, and had a handgun strapped to her waist.

She looked up from the paperwork on her desk. "Yes, sir?" She was intimidated by the younger man who seemed to look at everything as though it were all a puzzle. She had heard that he had been the one to survive and solve the Kira case, which only left her feeling even more inexperienced.

"I would like you to gather the other agents. I will need them to help plant spyware as well as detect any harmful devices that are near when I leave this afternoon." Rester Anthony, Gevanni Stephen, and Lidner Halle, the surviving former SPK members, had rejoined Near upon being told that a new Kira had come to light.

"Of course, sir." She immediately pulled out her cell phone and began dialing numbers.

"I will also need a hat to cover my head, and a coat with a collar that can conceal my face." Ms. Guyette nodded and started placing an order on her computer.

It was risky for Near to be stepping foot in public, especially with another Kira roaming about, but he needed to investigate those close to the victims. He needed to dig deeper to find the motive. It had already been four years since everything started, but Near was nowhere near accomplishing anything major. He was going today under the name Yoka Kuroso, a man recently moved from the Philippines. Gevanni, Lidner, and Rester were all going to act as his bodyguards while blending into the crowd.

There had been application requests for an experienced individual to review a soon-to-be administered assessment for any errors, which Near had filled out a form for. He would be leaving for Saito University in six hours, where he would be able to interview a very influential individual who had lost someone close to them due to these heart-attacks.

Hiroki Doki was a powerful politician who would be attending the University's exam in support for his daughter, Hiroki Maki. His wife had recently suffered from this tragedy, and was currently buried in the personal cemetery in his mansion's vast backyard.

Ms. Guyette looked up from her desk and told him, "Sir, I have finished making all of the necessary preparations, and your clothes should be arriving in ten minutes."

"Thank you. You may return to your work now." She didn't reply, immediately obeying his orders.

Near breathed evenly, staring at the 100 or so boxes of dice he had laid on the floor. With about five and a half hours left ahead of him, and nothing else to do, he began to build a city of dice.

**AMORA SAI'S RESIDENCE**

Sai burst out of her room and ran downstairs to grab a muffin, then ran back to her room. She quickly devoured it while checking Jaakuna's notification box. It was empty, so she had one less thing to worry about.

She quickly picked out some clothes with her left hand and packed her satchel with her right.

"In a rush this morning?" The shinigami suddenly appeared after being God knows where for the last nine hours. He was lucky she had had no requests last night, either.

She turned her moderately cold gaze on him. "Yeah. I didn't hear the alarm clock go off this morning, and slept in on accident. I have an appointment this morning that I can't be late for." She turned back to her packing.

"An appointment? Huh, is that how you say that you finally got a date with somebody?" Ryuk's smirk seemed to grow wider as she took longer to answer.

"I guess you could say that." A cruel smile crossed her face, but he couldn't see it since her bangs covered it. _Humoring Ryuk could be fun for a while, anyways._

She then ran to her bathroom across the hall and began to brush her teeth, using mouthwash after that. She jumped into the shower and was back out twenty minutes later. With a towel wrapped around her hair and body, she went back to her room.

Sai pulled on a knee-length white skirt that had black, sewn borders. Then she put on a black tank top along with a black see-through shirt whose sleeves extended all the way to her elbows. Her shoes were black sandals, and she braided her hair on one end so it would all hang over her left shoulder.

She grabbed her satchel and started downstairs with Ryuk silently following behind her. She walked through the kitchen to get to the front door located in the hallway behind the living room.

In the living room, she found her father with his new 'assistant' sitting next to him on the couch. They had papers cluttering the entire surface of the coffee table, but they were pulling away from each other when Sai stepped into the room.

She couldn't really remember this one's name, and she didn't care either way. Her father spoke up, "Where are you going on a Saturday?" His tone had turned cool, and the assistant looked at him with surprise, but just looked away again a few seconds later. She obviously didn't want to judge this man she was having an affair with. _What a naive idiot. But those are usually the kinds of women dad brings in nowadays._

"I have an important appointment today. I'm just going there right now..." She felt like throwing up at what she was going to ask next, but she needed to. "Can I please use the car to get there? I'll be back in about seven hours."

A mysterious expression crossed Mr. Amora's face. She absolutely hated asking her parents for anything, mainly because she had no idea what they would say to her. "I guess that's alright since we'll just be here all day doing work." He spoke after contemplating it for a while. "Your mother won't be back until much later, so we'll be able to get a lot more done this way." He smiled.

_Like fucking hell you will._ She always hated her father when he did shit like that, but she let it go and went to search for the car keys.

Sai arrived at the gates of her destination. She heard Ryuk sigh and saw him roll his eyes from the corner of hers. She entered and looked up at the large letters arranged along the building's front: _Saito University..._

**NEAR**

He was parked in the visitors' section in back of the university. He had traveled in a blue van advertising new books on the market. The vehicle had been thoroughly searched by Rester and Gevanni, with recording equipment set up on the inside. Near and Lidner, who were the ones acting as the reviewers, had listening and speaking devices hooked up to them in order to record any events taking place near them.

The two exited the van and started towards the entrance. Unlike L, N did not walk in a slumped fashion, though he did let his hands sag in the pockets of his coat, whose collar was up past his nose, and his hat covering the top of his head and the rest of his face. Lidner was dressed in a similar fashion, though her eyes were behind reflective, black glasses. They both entered the building and went to the administrator's office.

_'SIX-AND-A-HALF HOURS LATER'_

Near started walking away from the testing site A. He was a little disappointed with Hiroki Doki. The man had absolutely refused to speak with him about any of his wife's business, or anything she might have done that would make others consider her a criminal. Mr. Hiroki had gotten extremely angry at that point, and stormed out.

Near would just have to move onto someone else, though he decided he wouldn't need to go out in public anymore to do it. He only had to go to a federal prosecutor's house this afternoon, and then he would return to his base of operations to think of more strategies.

The entrance exams were finished for those who had come in the morning. The new arrivals were trickling into the emptying classrooms and claiming a seat while doing last-minute reviews.

He began to walk towards the back of the building, to the parking lot where the van was parked. He went through the school's outdoor walkway in the middle of the building to get there faster. A sudden gust of wind knocked his hat off, exposing his white hair underneath. He moved his hand to catch it, and glanced up...

**AMORA SAI**

Sai sat up and stretched. It had been a long exam, especially with Ryuk talking in the background about how bored he was. She had come close to telling him to shut the hell up and go _find_ something interesting on more than one occasion, but she held it all in and finished on time.

She started walking towards her car at the front of the building. Her testing room had been all the way in the back, so it would take her a little while. She listened to Ryuk continue to blab on in the background about different things, like the shinigami king and a bunch of other stuff they had already talked about.

She was walking along the only outdoor path that was dead-center in the building. She was halfway there when a large wind made her braid sway a little in the breeze. She looked up...

And saw a white-haired guy in his twenties. He looked thin, with one hand stuffed into the pocket of his large coat, and another holding a hat that had apparently just been taken off of his head by the wind.

The two stared at each other for a little while. Sai had never seen such sleepless eyes. The dark rings around them were so apparent that she wondered if he ever got any rest.

The stranger stared back into her eyes, though it didn't seem as though he cared. His gaze was indifferent, and he dropped his gaze soon enough and started walking again, replacing his hat.

She heard Ryuk burst into laughter, surprising her as she forgot he was there for a moment. She asked him about it later on in the car, but the shinigami just replied that it didn't matter.

She didn't see the sly smile that briefly lit up his face.

**BACK AT THE AMORA RESIDENCE**

Sai pulled into the driveway, getting out and swinging the keys around in the hand that wasn't carrying her satchel. Ryuk had gone to check out a new store opening across town before they had driven half the distance.

"It's supposed to have these new kinds of apples imported from across the ocean." That was all that had needed to be said.

She slowly walked up the rest of the driveway. She turned the house key in the lock, and quietly swung the door open. Then she walked down the small hallway and entered into the living room, stopping dead in her tracks when she saw what was in it.

**NEAR**

He had come to the prosecutor's house and parked far away, preferring to walk and keep the van concealed. He knocked on the door and entered when a man in his late forties answered. He led him into a modernly fashioned living room. Even so, Near noted how there didn't seem to be anything personal anywhere he looked.

He sat down with one foot dangling off the couch, the other curled up under him, while the man went upstairs to retrieve a few documents to discuss with him.

He heard a lock turn in the door, and looked towards the open passageway near the entrance. In walked the girl he had just passed by in the college not too long ago. She had slightly intrigued him, then. Everything about her seemed dark, though her skin was slightly pale. Her face was beautiful, but that wasn't what he had noticed about her first. He had noticed those golden eyes, whose color should have seemed so filled with light, but were cold and calculating on her.

She stared at him for a long time, and he finally spoke up: "Hello, I'm Yoka Kuroso. You may call me Kuroso if you want. I'm usually building something in my professional workplace, but I'm here to speak with your father about a few of his cases."

She continued to stare at Mr. Yoka. "Is that so?" Her voice was as cool as her eyes, though it sounded silky at the same time. People would refer to her as a 'Dark Beauty'.

"Yes, but I also came to deal with a few... seemingly loose ends that should have been tied up eight years ago."

**Feel free to leave a review and tell me what you think. I'm always up for criticism as well as compliments. Thank you!**


	10. A Past Worth Forgetting

**Thanks for reading, and I do not own Death Note or any song you see in here. I only claim to own my OC's.**

Once again, Amora Sai sat down on her bed, feeling completely exhausted. It had been another long night. She had mostly thought about that guy who had come by three weeks ago the entire time. She might not have cared much, if the last thing he said to her hadn't been about loose ends from eight years ago. _The Kira case…_

_Sure jumping to conclusions so big is probably ridiculous, but Ryuk was laughing when we first saw his face. He hadn't even explained why that was, which usually meant he thought it would be more entertaining to withhold the information. Just like he did with Yagami Light sometimes. _ She had figured out that the man she had met at the college campus, and had been waiting in her home, had been none other than the famous N, Near…..

She hadn't confronted Ryuk about this yet, but she would before she went to bed tonight. She glanced at the alarm clock. _Make that this morning._ She let out a groan.

Ryuk flew into her bedroom after going to retrieve the imported apples from across town. _His addiction for apples knows no bounds._ Apples were what she used to bribe him, and they seemed to be the only things he ate. But that didn't matter right now.

"Didn't Mr. Yoka Kuroso seem strange to you?" Her voice was nonchalant, and her body language seemed indifferent.

"Nah, he seemed like just your regular guy." Ryuk was also playing the cool character. Sai shifted onto her stomach, with her feet in the air wrapping around each other and swaying. She flicked the bangs out of her face and stared at the Death Note in front of her. Acting like all of her attention was focused on this one task in front of her, she began to write the names of her recent users, with the death description of a heart-attack occurring three months later next to each name.

**Hiroki Doki**_: a man who was in great denial of his wife's death, and knew that she had used Jaakuna Herupa's link to kill the man who had raped and killed her mother right in front of her when she was a teenager. He also knew that his daughter was currently being stalked by a man in his late twenties. He knew who he was, because he had been his wife's assistant for two weeks. His daughter was starting to stay up late at night, sometimes rocking in a corner of her bedroom in terror. He couldn't let this continue, and the police would just take forever to deal with him, since he now had a hand in the investigating unit. Hiring a hit man might land him in jail, and he needed to be around as long as he could to watch over the most precious thing his wife had left him. Even with the idea of only having three months left, he knew he had to do something to keep his little girl from screeching at the smallest noises. He would save her; he promised his wife he would do anything it took to keep her safe. _

Hiroki had made Sai hurt inside: she knew her father would not do anything to that extent for her. She grew jealous of this girl who had such an admirable person so close. But she knew she couldn't do anything about it, and she was about to write his name in her Death Note, so they were probably even. Even so, the ache wouldn't go away. She wished she knew what this girl must feel like every day. While Ryuk was gone checking out the target, she had done something she never thought she would do. She hugged him. Hard. She didn't let go until she could feel him start to get more awkward under her touch. After that, Sai was back to the indifferent façade, and her mask hid any emotions she felt cross her face.

"If that was the truth, then he wouldn't be the famous N now acting as L, would he?"

_As usual, this kid's got one useful head on her shoulders. I shouldn't be surprised that she figured it out so easily._ Ryuk thought to himself while he tried to keep his expression neutral.

"Don't even bother, I can already tell from your first reaction that I'm right. You burst into laughter when he looked up at us, but didn't say anything about it. And then, he sat oddly for someone who's working with my father on some of his prosecution forms. Even then, I knew he wasn't just some usual co-worker. He's working undercover on this case, and I knew it all the moment he said he was here to tie up loose ends from eight years ago."

"Looks like my ideas of having more fun were just flushed down the toilet. I guess I'll just have to make do with just you for a while." Sai just sighed and continued on with what she was doing.

There were only two people that night, but Ryuk had gotten sidetracked with apples (of course), so it had taken a while to get to the second user.

**Larson Billy: **_A young boy who was constantly being bullied by the toughest members of his class. He didn't know why they wanted to hurt him so bad, but they just did. The worst of the group was the leader, Kidner Atkins. He was constantly shoving shit down his locker, and even went so far to put it in his backpack and throw it at his house when his mother was at home. If only it stopped there, but it didn't. Atkins had a knack for really hurting people. He had worn a mask and beaten the shit out of his little sister when he had refused to give him money, due to insufficient funds. He threatened to beat other members of his family up, too, if he didn't give him the money he wanted. That was what finally pushed Billy off the edge, and he sentenced him to death through severe beating by a gang full of all sorts of criminals. _

Having younger siblings take the brunt of an attack for you, and feeling like something was eating at the insides of you, was something that Sai could sympathize with.

Unconsciously, she started singing a famous English song under her breath:

"_Throw your soul threw every open door_

_Count your blessings to find what you look for_

_Turn my sorrow into treasured gold_

_You pay me back in kind and reap just what you sow_

_We could have had it all_

_We could have had it all_

_We could have had it all_

_Rolling in the deep_

_You had my heart inside your hand_

_And you played it to the beat_

_We could have had it all_

_Rolling in the deep_

_You had my heart inside your hand…"_

The song sounded so right in her situation, in her life, in her everything. Why couldn't she have been given a normal life? Why did everything get so twisted? When, when did everything go wrong? Tears started to gather in her eyes, and she quickly ducked her head into the nearest pillow, concealing her face while making it look like she was just resting her head. But her throat was starting to tighten, and she had to start chanting to herself: _I will not lose it. I will not lose it in front of Ryuk. I WILL NOT LOSE IT!_

Ryuk took notice of the girl. "Something the matter?"

Sai lost it.

She couldn't stop crying, or rather, the tear ducts wouldn't obey her commands and stop tearing up. It was the most embarrassing thing in her life. Not only was she crying, she was crying in front of Ryuk, a shinigami.

Said shinigami was staring at her back in utter surprise. The girl who only ever looked cold was crying right before him. Maybe it was possible for her to cry, but not in front of other people, or things similar to people. "Now, I wonder what could possibly be bothering you so much that you would do a complete character-change?" Even though this recent development attesting to the girl's humanity was interesting to him, the question came out disinterested… condescending, even.

She didn't want to talk about it with this shinigami who didn't give a damn if she died so long as she entertained him until then. But then again….. maybe that was exactly what she needed: to talk to someone who wouldn't care either way. Her chest was hurting really bad by now, and it was no wonder since she had always worked to keep it all in. She knew she could never forget what happened, and how it had ruined her so, so badly.

_**FLASHBACK…**_

_A seven-year-old Amora Sai ran through the field of flowers. Her heart was racing, her blood was pumping, and she absolutely loved it. She stopped and turned in a full circle before continuing on._

_She turned around and raced back the other way after a while, the huge smile still lighting up her face, and her golden eyes shining enough to put a star to shame. She ran back to her happy family that was setting a table nearby for an outdoor picnic that they had been planning for the last week. It was going to be awesome, sitting there with her mom, dad…. and younger siblings who were twins. The little five-year-old boy was Amora Tetsu, while his twin sister was Amora Gurren. They were born with blood-red hair (inherited from their mother), slightly tanned skin (also from their mother), and their father's golden eyes, much to Sai's delight. They at least looked similar on some level. Gurren wore her long hair in cute, high pig-tails, while her brother's was short, but shaggy. They had on matching plaid outfits._

_Sai ran up to them, tackling both to the ground in a bear hug. All three were laughing and giggling at the great time they were having. Even their parents were enjoying their children's happiness. After a while they started gazing at each other lovingly and with pride in their eyes. These children meant the most to them._

_"I wanna play tag!" shouted Tetsu. The three immediately said "Not It!" with Sai being the last to chime in, winning her the position of It. The twins split up and started running to different ends of the public picnic fields. She decided to go after the slower twin first: Gurren. Running to catch up to the little red-head girl, she nearly tripped several times, but finally caught up with her after a while. Gurren had screeched at the top of her lungs, lapsing into loud giggles after the first second._

_"Come on, soldier," said Sai in a mock-stern voice. "We have an enemy to track down. You will chase him from behind, and I will hook around in front of him. Once we corner him, we will de-flag and wrestle him into submission. Understood?"_

_Gurren raised her left hand to her forehead in salute. "Yes, sir!"_

_They ran to put their plan into action, and sure enough, Tetsu was caught between the two in no time, gasping for air as they smothered him into the ground. They were all so close, they might as well been joined at the hip. The twins looked up to their big sister as someone who could and would protect them from the monsters in the dark. The older girl looked at the twins as the most precious things in the world to her. She hugged them closer, and then their mother called them over to eat._

_'A FEW MONTHS LATER'_

_"Sai! Come down here and meet your babysitter!" She groaned. She didn't like being called a baby. Besides, she was seven-years-old, which was practically adult age in dog years, so she should've been babysitting the twins by herself._

_She went downstairs and looked up at a blonde teenager with a fashionable shirt and skinny jeans on. Her face was covered in makeup, but she could see the annoyance that crossed her face when the teen looked at her. She was quick to cover it up before her employers saw it, though. Sai already didn't like her._

_The twins came down next, each going to either side of their big sister and grabbing a hand. All three had on pajamas, since it was almost bed-time anyways. None of them could stay up past 7:30 anyways._

_Their parents left then, off to a congratulatory dinner for my mother's printing company's newest growth. It was going to be going on way into the morning, so they had hired the babysitter to stay overnight._

_The moment they left, she immediately turned to the kids she would be babysitting and said, "Listen up, I'm Brittany. I'll be babysitting you tonight, so you better behave yourselves." A look of total disdain lit up her face, and she continued, "I don't want you whining about anything, do you understand? Now, go brush your teeth and get into bed." She dismissed them and pulled out her phone, starting to text all of her friends._

_The little ones did as they were told to do, going to their room when they were done. None of them expected their stuck-up babysitter to read them a story, so Sai read until the twins were asleep. She knew her parents should have just let her be in charge, instead of that waste of money lying on the couch downstairs._

_She crawled into bed and fell asleep…_

_'MEANWHILE DOWNSTAIRS'_

_"Are you f-ing kidding me, Scarla? He's there right now?" Brittany listened intently to the girl on the other end of the line. "Uggh, what a drag that I have to babysit these brats right now instead of be at the biggest block party ever!" She listened for a while._

_Shifting the phone to her other ear as she stood up, she walked upstairs, peeking on the kids to see if they were sleeping yet. She whispered into the phone, "Yeah, their totally knocked out, and it's only 8:12." She giggled, "Yeah, yeah, yeah….. I'm totally on my way over there right now. Just wait for me, okay?" With that, she hung up and tip-toed down the stairs and out the front door, but forgot to lock it back up once she got outside._

_'A FEW HOURS LATER'_

_Sai woke to rustling sounds. They were coming from many different directions in the house, and she immediately grew scared, starting to shake. Monsters! was all she could think._

_The twins soon woke up after that, and grew scared as well, both running to their older sister's bed in the middle of the room. They hid under the covers together, Sai hugging both of them tightly to her. But she could still feel the shivers that ran up their backs and hers when they heard their door creek open. She squeezed her eyes shut so hard she thought her eyelids would pop under the pressure, also covering Tetsu and Gurren's eyes with her hands. She forced her breath to even out, so the monster would think she was sleeping. It didn't work._

_The sheets were ripped off of them, and all three let out an ear-piercing scream before having something stuffed into their mouths and tied shut. Their hands and feet were bound next. The children could all still see, though, and saw figures that resembled men, but had faces like hockey masks. Sai really started to sweat then, she had heard of Friday the 13th, but thought it was just a joke to scare little kids. Luckily, none of the four individuals held a chainsaw. She didn't know what they were after, but wished they would just take it and go away forever._

_"What should we do with them?" asked the guy all the way in the back and leaning against the door._

_"I don't know, we can't just kill them for no reason, they haven't seen our faces yet." The guy next to him argued. He sounded like he was the leader, uncaring as to what became of the two red-heads and raven-haired child sitting on the ground before him. His authority was proven when every other monster in the room looked at him, and then stepped away from them a bit._

_"Then what should we do?" The one up front and close to Sai's left spoke in an impatient voice. Whatever they were looking for earlier hadn't been found._

_"Why don't we just knock them out and sell them for ransom to their parents?" The only person who hadn't spoken finally did, and his voice was haggard and steely. Four pairs of eyes behind masks turned back to the bound-up individuals. Sai was starting to feel really cold, and she could tell that Tetsu and Gurren were, too. She carefully moved closer to them to help warm them up._

_"Nah, just leave them for now." said Mr. Leader, and the others followed him out into the hallway. There were more rustling sounds, which continued to grow louder as time went on and they apparently didn't find anything they were looking for. They were starting to yell profanities at each other, some of which Sai had never heard before, but some that her parents had uttered at times. The twins were shaking in fear, and she could feel some of their teardrops as they landed on her legs. She wanted to comfort them so badly, but her hands were tied up behind her back, so she would have to wait._

_One of the people burst in just then, and screamed, "WHERE THE FUCK IS ALL OF THE MONEY? YOU STUPID BRATS SHOULD KNOW, SO WHERE IS IT?" The three cowered as his voice got louder. The others were starting to file in, and Sai used cross-elimination to guess that the man yelling was the leader. He had apparently lost his cool. "WE NEED THAT FUCKING MONEY, SO YOU BETTER START TALKIN'!" He was right in their faces. His breath rank, but the eyes staring at them from behind the mask were worse. They held blood-lust, but these children didn't understand what that was, so it was all the more terrifying. Then, the most terrifying thins of all happened: the leader calmed down, and started talking calmly…. but his eyes were that of a lunatic, and what came out next only proved that theory. "How about we make a little deal? Hmm? How's about one of you go look for something valuable, and then bring it back here? How does that sound?" Sai went cold on the inside. She was petrified, and, if she wasn't mistaken, near wetting herself. But she just nodded her head. The one closest to the leader and the kids took out a knife and cut all of her restraints. She stood up and stretched her legs, and a gun was pointed at both of her siblings._

_"If you try to run, scream, or do _anything_ that would make people come to this house, I will kill these two. Understand?" The leader's voice was even more frightening when she was standing up and her knees were able to shake. She nodded, and started towards the door._

_She came back after hours of searching everywhere, finding nothing. There were tears spilling over her eyes as she thought of the things they would want to do to her siblings. But no guns were pointed at any of them, and Sai mentally sighed in relief._

_She froze up again when she saw how rigid the ski-mask wearing people were. The leader was practically shaking in anger. He started towards her, and she thought he was going to hurt her. He stopped shaking before he reached her, though, and instead pulled out his gun. Sai's vision blurred. She was too scared now to do anything but shake and let the tears flow faster. She was breathing in very fast as she stared at the blurred gun. But then the man did something very weird: he handed the gun to her, taking out another one and training it on her head. He gave one order, "Shoot them."_

_She was confused, she didn't know what he was talking about, or who he wanted her to shoot. He grabbed her arm and pulled Sai over until she was facing… a crying Tetsu, and a paralyzed Gurren. "You can't be useful to us, then you can be useful to them. Shoot. Both of them." Her mouth plummeted open. He couldn't possibly mean for her to do that._

_"Wh-wh-why?"_

_"Because it would be a lot better than what we had in mind for them." He nodded at the two closest to the door. They were also both wearing backpacks that were obviously filled. One started rummaging through and pulled out some wicked-looking device that reminded Sai of a grappling hook, but much smaller and sharper. The other pulled a device that looked like it was meant to rip fingernails off. Sai didn't know how many times she had shuddered that night, but she did it again, and fell to the floor and started bawling. She didn't think she could stop, until the scariest guy addressed her again. "You better make a decision. We can shoot you, and fuck your little twin siblings up, or you can shoot them, and we fuck you up." He paused for a while, and spoke again, "There isn't going to be any surviving for any of you." Tetsu and Gurren started crying for mommy and daddy through their gags, but two of the thugs kicked them both and they returned to whimpering. "You can choose which of you suffers the most, them, or you? Hurry up, because I'm not a patient man." He raised his gun to her head again._

_She swallowed, and her body went numb all over. She was paralyzed with fear, but not of what would happen to her, it was fear of what would happen to them. She started hyperventilating at some points without realizing it, and was now very light-headed. The gun felt heavy in her hand, and more than anything, she didn't want to make this choice. She wanted her mother or her father to be there to take care of things for her, so she could just go to sleep and not have to worry about anything. But mom and dad weren't there, and they weren't going to be helping out with anything. A choice suddenly made itself clear in her mind, and she shakily raised the gun. She pointed it at Tetsu. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." Her voice was breaking on each of the words, and her eyes were overflowing with tears, she could have missed, if she weren't so close. She pulled the trigger…. BANG! And there was blood all over the floor. Sai was starting to gag, and she already couldn't breathe. Each breath felt like it hurt all of her insides. She raised the gun again, and pulled the trigger, but not before she heard Gurren mumble, "Onii-chan, doushite?"_

**_END OF_**_ FLASHBACK..._

"The cops came before they could do anything besides slice my torso open. Apparently Brittany had come back and heard what happened and called the police to come. I told the police what had happened when I was finally awake and my body was sewn shut…. My parents never looked at me the same again. They grew to hate me more and more as time went on. And I grew to hate people. Maybe that explains why a shinigami is the only thing I can talk to." Her voice was dry, and she had stopped crying a while ago during her story. Now her eyes were hollow…. but instead of nothing in their depth, there was eternal sadness.

Ryuk stared at the girl. "Then why don't you use the Death Note to pay them back? They should be in jail now, and their names and faces would have been recorded."

She shook her head. "If I want to give my hand to others to pull them up, I don't want to become corrupt like Light. If I were to do something like that, I know I wouldn't stop." She stared Ryuk in the eyes. "I'll kill for others, but I myself shall remain neutral, because neutral people are the ones who tend to hurt less."

**Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think ^_^.**


	11. Calls

**Thanks to all those who are reading my story. I would also like to especially thank Marcus Absent for all of the reviews he gave me ^^. I hope you enjoy this next chapter!  
**

**Oh, and I do not, in any way, own Death Note, just my OC's...  
**

**NEAR'S HEADQUARTERS**

Near's trick from before had been very risky. Going out in broad daylight had been extremely dangerous. But he knew that L had never gotten anywhere by staying inside. He ended up dead after revealing his face to Kira, which had been a mistake caused by trying to stay behind the scenes almost the entire time.

A sudden idea struck him. "Ms. Guyette?"

"Yes, sir?"

"I would like to view all of the deaths occurring within the first year that this series of heart-attacks started occurring. That of course means all of them. Please have them on my desk in an hour."

'_THREE HOURS AND TWELVE MINUTES LATER'_

He placed the documents back on the table in front of him. "Please call Rester, Lidner, and Gevanni, and tell them to come here immediately. I have something I would like to share with them."

"I'm right on it." With that, Ms. Guyette left the technology-filled room and began placing calls to Gevanni and Lidner, who were outside of the premises, while walking towards Rester's office. She pocketed her phone when she had finished her second call and lightly tapped on the office door located a little ways above ground, acting as a regular office in an FBI agency. All of the operations took place in secret and where no one would know it was happening, with the location changing often. "Excuse me, sir? But, Mr. N would like to have a word with the three of you, and wishes you to report to headquarters immediately."

"Very well then." The man rose and followed Ms. Guyette back to where Near was. It only took a few minutes for the others to show up.

"I understand that there is something you wish to speak to us about, Near?" Gevanni was the first to speak.

"Yes. I have called you here today because I believe I have made a very important discovery involving the new Kira case. After examining new evidence, I have thus far come up with this." Near pushed a button on a remote control in his hand, turning the lights off. He pushed another button and one of the screens turned on, revealing a white screen.

"I believe that I have begun to see a pattern between the victims, and deaths of the past." A photo appeared. "Dating three months before the supposed first heart-attack victim, Guy Bato died after rabid animals feasted on his body near the roadside." The agents didn't appear to see where he was going with this. "Let me explain. I cross-examined all deaths occurring within the year 2014. I eliminated all of them that seemed purely coincidence, though I have kept all information in case of further need later on.

"However, Guy Bato's death was in high suspicion, as he was dismembered by nearby rabid animals."

"So? How does that make it any different from other accidental deaths?" Lidner asked. She did not doubt for a second that he was going somewhere major with this. However, she also did not quite understand what he was getting at.

"Nearby rabid animals. Gevanni, please give me a textbook definition of the word nearby." His tone seemed to show a spark of interest and superiority, but it was bound to be that way if one was as great a detective as Near was.

"Nearby, meaning to be close to something which is being referred to."

"Thank you, Gevanni. As I have mentioned before, I investigated all of the deaths, including the factors that played a part in the actual occurrence. The aforementioned animals… were not nearby in any way. Or, should I say that they were not meant to be nearby in the first place?

"I believe that Guy Bato may have been part of the new Kira's first deaths. As we found out during the investigation concerning Yagami Light, using the Death Note, one can manipulate the time of death as well as the events leading up to it. These animals were miles away from that roadside, with no indication that they were forced to move there in order to survive. Even so, they all moved towards this specific roadside and from different directions at that, for nothing more than to eat a man they could not have known would be there? There is too much coincidence to believe that this was just a random event that occurred and that they all moved of their own volition."

They all stood momentarily stunned, but soon recovered and moved on to the next pressing topic. Rester asked, "How does this affect the Kira case, then?"

"It may seem like a usual victim for Kira, as the man was a major drug-dealer, but if that were the case, then why continue on to kill an innocent man after that. The next suspected victim, Hajime Hyuu, also died under strange circumstances similar to that of Guy Bato. He, however, was just another every day man who sold comics for a living. Then, an alleged murderer three counties away suddenly arrives at his comic book store and shoots him? There are many other deaths occurring that appear to be very similar to this case, and some heart-attack victims that interest me.

"To answer Rester's question," he clicked a button on the remote, and Kimi Moka's face showed up, with the date of her death appearing underneath of it, "Kimi Moka, the alleged first victim of an intentional heart-attack, was not guilty of anything legally. She was also not under suspicion of doing anything wrong."

"Could this girl have had a connection to the new Kira, and found something out? Could she have tried to go to the police with this information and was killed before she could get there?" Rester suggested, while the other agents listened intently to what his answer would be.

"That could be possible, but I highly doubt it since the girl gave no sign of learning anything so great or trying to inform the police of anything in the moments leading up to her death. No, she was just sitting in her room. What strikes me as odd is the fact that hers was the first death, and it was also three months after Guy Bato's death, which, if we use my earlier theory, was also the potential first death."

"What does the time between them have to do with anything?" Gevanni asked.

"Because, the time span, around three months, between one seemingly manipulated death and a heart-attack victim is the constant in this equation." His tone grew more serious, which had the rest of the task force trying to see what he saw.

"I still don't see what the deaths being three months apart have to do with anything." Gevanni broke the silence.

"You're right, these death have basically nothing to do with each other. But then again, maybe they do all share something. A common-point. Do you think you might know what that is?" He asked all of the SPK members in front of him.

When none answered, he explained further. "Guy Bato was a major drug-dealer. In fact, he was even in court for reasons regarding this very fact. Do you know who the lawyer going against him was?" His eyes were lighting up as he verbally connected all of the dots for the three in front of him. "His name was Kimi Agatori, the father of Kimi Moka, with her mother, Ayu, being his assistant." The agents' eyes all lit up a bit in understanding. "Agatori and Ayu were both heading towards their office in order to obtain information having to do with Bato's case. Upon returning home after retrieving the information, their car was met with numerous collisions until both died of compression. Bato was later arrested for this crime, and it was revealed that he had been in contact with Kimi Moka prior to her parents' murder. This would lead her to have a grudge against this man: for making her feel comfortable, using her, and then tearing away precious loved ones.

"She died later of a heart-attack at the young age of 16. This in itself may have been just a coincidence. But this, too, became a constant among victims of new-Kira. Spanning three months apart, a criminal, or anyone who had majorly scarred another, died of a heart-attack, or a more detailed death, with the victim of their attacks, or one of their victims, dying after the allotted time. This pattern is seen in most of the individuals involved in this mass murder, when lined up together. And even those who don't show the same characteristics on the surface could also follow this constant, though it may not be common knowledge to the general public. To sum it all up, it means-"

Rester broke in and finished the genius's explanation. "It means that this new Kira isn't just killing criminals, though a handful of the victims were of this group, but instead is killing people who others have a great grudge against, and killing those who wanted revenge three months later with a heart-attack."

"Thank you, Rester. That pretty much sums up what I was going for." Near looked disinterested once again.

"So, are you saying that this is like some new help agency? Where one person satiates their hatred for another, and pays with their own lives later on?" Lidner seemed a bit surprised.

"Yes, right now that is our best theory to go off of. Of course, if it is true, it would mean that new-Kira does not believe in the justice of right and wrong, but rather in the justice found in repaying others for past crimes done against oneself. In other words, he believes he is helping the people become happy by offering them a hand out of their suffering. And what do humans love more than hurting others who they feel are deserving of it."

"So, we're chasing after an all new type of Death-Note killer? Will we be at a disadvantage because of this?" Rester spoke up again.

"I believe we are at an advantage due to the fact that we know more information concerning the Death Note than the original L had to go off of when starting his investigation. It means we will be able to at least narrow down some of the suspects. That in itself will make this investigation much easier. And now that we have discovered his drive, it won't be long until we can find him." A smirk lit up his face. _I'll catch this new guy, and I'll do it exactly as I did with Light, using my wits. I'll be waiting to see who you are…_

**AMORA SAI'S RESIDENCE**

_Sssss. _Sai loved the feel of the water coming from the showerhead. It was relaxing and warm. She absentmindedly traced a hand over her scar, which came from the incident she had told Ryuk about. Her fingers caressed soft tissue, which formed a line starting just at the top of her chest, going all the way down the middle until it reached just below her bellybutton. The doctors said that the mark would go away after a few years, but it was nearly twelve years later, and she was approaching the age of nineteen, the scar still a noticeable feature on her body. It shouldn't matter to her, though, since she didn't plan on ever showing her body to anyone. She wasn't even sure if she even wanted to attempt dating people. The thought had crossed her mind at various points, but there was no one she could sit and talk with without feeling like the other was a complete moron. It wasn't that she thought everyone else was stupid; it was just that others who refused to see the world in her eyes tended to talk about things that seemed foolish to Sai. _I don't mind being alone. I usually am._

But she knew she couldn't stay inside of her house all the time. If Near was starting to get interested in this case, it was her job to make sure she didn't give him an excuse to suspect her too much. Sitting inside of her room all day just doing work was definitely suspicious for someone of her age. She didn't know if he had put together a suspect list yet, or if she was on it if he had. But she knew, sooner or later, she would start to be tailed, so she needed to start changing her habits gradually instead of when she knew he was dead on her trail. _Starting earlier on, before it's even broadcast that something weird is going on, will give me an advantage._

With that in mind, she stepped out of the shower, drying off, and wore her hair in the same way she did during the college exams. She slipped on a black dress that fell to her knees. It was designed to swirl if one turned around very fast, only coming a little bit past her shoulders and also having a black belt to go around the waist. She wore the black sandals from the exam, too. All that was left was to take her satchel with her.

Before leaving, she checked the Death Note and its hiding spot, just to be on the safe side. Long ago, she had realized that trained professionals would see through her tape, so she added yet another object to throw people off. She taped a special purse containing most of her savings (over seven-hundred dollars) to the part of the cut-out ceiling that would be concealed. She could just say that she was a very cautious person if anyone were to find it. Seven-hundred dollars was more than enough to make it believable. It was even better that Ryuk could just pass his hand through the ceiling and pull the book out for Sai at times (yet another shinigami trick), so she didn't have to pull it out as often as she needed to, and her jobs would continue even if she were to come under surveillance.

She went out the front door, walking three blocks to get to the bus station that would get her to the nearest shopping center. Her parents were both out at their work places, her father at the courthouse and her mother at the insurance agency where she worked as an actuary, and took their cars with them. They probably wouldn't have let her use them anyways. It took her less than ten minutes to arrive at the large shopping center, and she immediately went in search of a good magazine store. She didn't need to worry about buying anything, though she did have the money, she just needed to get out and breathe in the fresh air; but it wouldn't have been bad to see what she could find out about her society these days.

Apparently many people seemed to be on edge.

"Hey, did you hear?" A whispered conversation caught Sai's attention as she was passing the fountain, so she stopped and sat down for a while, pretending not to be listening in to what they were saying.

"What? About how all these heart-attacks are starting up again?" The first speaker grunted in agreement.

"I think that there's a new Kira, but all of the people being killed are random, and most haven't even been suspected of doing any crimes."

"Maybe they have, and we just don't know about it."

"Yeah, and maybe the ten-year-old who died a couple of days ago went and killed his entire family. No dude, this is totally messed up. The victims are just ordinary people, so who's to say we aren't next?"

"Oh, God, bro, maybe that does make a little sense." The second speaker continued after apparently thinking it over for a while.

"At any rate, if it is like the last Kira murders, he only needs a name and a face to kill, so I'm gonna be stickin' indoors for a while."

"Yeah, that might be a great idea."

_This was only to be expected. The internet can only go so far in spreading the services around, so it isn't surprising that these guys would think that some twisted psycho was on the loose with Kira's powers and was killing people randomly. Of course the victims are random; all of them couldn't possibly be the same except for the fact that they had huge grudges. _Sai waited a little longer to go. She left after sitting at the fountain and staring at the sky for a long time. Then she went to the closest magazine store she could find, which was on the second level and near the escalators.

She entered the shop and gazed around. When she found the section she was looking for, she strode towards it and picked up the nearest magazine on gothic fashions. She was only slightly interested in that kind of thing, but it didn't take up her life to the point of painting her entire body in black. She just preferred to wear the color. Green was refreshing, and black was dark and sightless. The blackness could swallow her up and make her forget everything that had happened, if only for a while.

Yet another interesting conversation started up very close to her. She didn't want to appear to be listening in, though, so she walked a far distance away and buried her nose in the magazine. Of course, she was still close enough to be able to hear. She pulled out the earphones she had bought along with her MP3 player and plugged them in, to appear as though she were listening to music, and began to flip through the pages as she would if she were actually reading it.

"Yeah, I heard that there's this site you can go to if you do all of that first. That stuff's like the eliminating factor so freaks don't get on there. Anyways, there's supposed to be two blank white boxes where you put your birthday and the person you want to kill. They say that you die of a heart-attack three months later, but can kill your target any way you want to."

"Holy crap, maybe that's that stuff going on about Kira returning or something like that."

"I don't know. Some people call her a Death Bringer, but I'm not sure whether she exists or not. It's probably just some story over the internet. Even my brother tried to trace it and couldn't find anything, and he's one of the elite FBI agents in America! So I'm not sure I believe she exists."

"Oooh, but wouldn't that be so cool. I could kill somebody who pissed me off real bad and not be put in jail."

"Come _on_, as if anyone would pay attention to a stupid request like yours." The girls giggled then and left the shop.

Sai sat there and went through the entire magazine, all the while thinking about the girls and the guys, but mostly about both of their conversations. She went to pick up another magazine after she finished the first, all the while thinking.

_It may be true that people will start to think that I am Kira again because of the way people are dying, but it could get to the point where no one would look for the website. Even people actively searching for me are starting to think that I am a new Kira. I can't have that happening. It will distort my image, I'm not out for the blood of all the criminals in the world, I'm just out to help others who need it... Perhaps it's time to announce to everyone just who I am…_

With that thought in mind, she brought both magazines she had been perusing to the front counter, buying both and going home soon after.

At home, she looked for Ryuk. He was in her room, looking like he was bored with nothing left to do. She smiled, _He'll be plenty entertained when the real trial is announced and the people of the world realize just what is going on, especially N. I will need him specifically for this plan. _She started on her way home, but not before visiting the dump to grab a few things. She was certain that no one was tailing her, and if they were, she would have lost them at all the twists and turns she took to get there.

Upon getting home, she went up to her room, starting the special history disk, and implemented a few software features into her newly assembled device. "Hey, Ryuk, let me see that mask." He unhooked it from his belt, a mask that completely covered her face, being onyx black and having special lenses over the eyes. She had put them there so no one would see hers, but she would still be able to see through the eyeholes. She began using the drill and nails she had also found at the dump (and fixed) to screw the new device into place where her mouth would be located behind the mask.

"What are you up to?" He was standing behind her and watching the new improvements she was making.

"I'm placing a voice modifier so no one will recognize my voice." She placed the mask over her face and tested it out. "What do you think of the new voice of Jaakuna Herupa?" The voice that came out was deep and resembled that of a man, but it was also very electronic-sounding, so it could have belonged to any gender. It reminded Ryuk of the voice modifiers L and those other kids had used to talk to each other.

"That's all great and dandy, but why the sudden need for a modifier?"

A smirk lit up Sai's face and she started laughing quietly. She spun her chair around after handing the mask back to Ryuk, so he wouldn't see her face. "I think it's time me and 'L' had a conversation, don't you think?"

Ryuk was silent for a moment, but then burst out laughing in that ragged voice of his. "And just how do you plan on talking to N? I don't think he leaves his number out for just anyone to find."

"Hmm, I'm alright on that little problem. I just have to call the FBI, which he mainly works for, tell them just who I am, and to put me through to him immediately. I'll even use hostages if I have to."

Ryuk's eyes shined in excitement. He didn't doubt that she would be able to do it. _This is gonna be so much fun… _"So, what's first?"

"Well, if I want to have a talk with him, I'm going to have to go somewhere where there are enough people to hold hostage, and I can prove my authenticity with some criminals I know off the top of my head. Don't sweat the details, I've got it all figured out. The only thing I really need you to do is carry me the second I tell you to, understand?" She looked at him.

"Don't worry, I got it. Pick you up if you say to."

"Oh, and I'll need the entire Death Note for this one, so slide it out, would you?" The shinigami had noticed that she was getting even bossier than she was before, but so had Light, and that meant that this could turn out to be real interesting.

He got the book as he was told to do, and watched as she slipped the cover off of it. "For insurance. If anyone sees me writing in this, they may describe it to the police, and then they would know to look for a Death Note that has a cover on it. That would be pretty troublesome." She then asked for the robe, which she slid the Death Note into, and put her mask on. "Now, would you please carry me over to the Sakura TV station?" she asked in her mechanical voice.

His eyes widened. "The Sakura TV station? Why would you want to go there?"

"Just do it. You'll find out soon enough." He lifted her up, and they went over to the news station in only a little time. "Alright, now fly us into the top floor. That's where the producers should be." He did as he was told, entering into the office holding all of the Sakura TV producers in it. It seemed they were having a meeting. "Good, now don't put me down yet. I'm going to write down the names of criminals that should be broadcast on the news in a few minutes."

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"Because, they're famous criminals, so their deaths won't go unnoticed by the media." She quickly wrote down two names, manipulating their deaths to occur in ten minutes. They were both on public trial as she was writing down their names, so they should appear on Channel 45 exactly when she wrote about it. "Okay, now you can put me down."

He did as he was told. The businessmen were still fighting over the viewer ratings they had been discussing when Sai and Ryuk first came in, but their attention was easily diverted. "Greetings. I am the one referred to as the new Kira."

Everyone had turned to her at that, and what happened next was not surprising: chairs were upended as people tried to back away from the strange figure that had just appeared before them. Some people screamed curses, wondering why a brat had gotten in there in the first place. Others were reaching for the telephone line, presumably to call security. "Do not attempt to call anyone. As I said, I am the one referred to as the new Kira, and if you make one more move, I will kill you." Everyone froze at that.

But some soon recovered from the shock and replied, "Why should we believe you, huh? Anyone can come waltzing in and claim they are Kira, so why shouldn't we just call the cops on you right now?"

Sai was getting annoyed, but she didn't let it show, keeping her voice sounding neutral (in robotic terms anyways). "If you turn on the TV to channel 45, you will witness the deaths of two criminals during their court trials that are being broadcast. One will die of a heart-attack, while the other will jump out the window and fall from the eight-story building to his death below." The television set was turned on, though some had protested to it, not wanting to humor a ridiculous child's prank.

"OH MY GOD, the two criminals being held on trial have just died! One collapsed from a heart-attack while the other jumped out the window. This courtroom is eight stories high, so it is most likely that he is now dead." The reporter seemed to be freaking out and covering her face in shock as well as in fear. The room Sai was in had gone quiet and terror riddled the air. Everyone turned to look at the dark figure in their midst.

"Should I predict another death, or have you been convinced?" Only a few nodded, mostly in fear. "Now, what I am about to say next is very important. I want you to call the main office, and tell everyone not to enter the top floor. As for those who are already here, they must stay in place. Tell them that they are all being held hostage under Kira, and all those who come in will be killed immediately. Is that understood?" The one closest to the phone nodded, picking it up and repeating her order. The entire building seemed to go silent as people stopped moving everywhere, in fear of Kira. She may not have had the shinigami eyes yet, but she could act like it, and others would be reminded of a similar hostage incident concerning the station and the second Kira a while back.

"O-okay. We've done what you asked. Now what is it you want?" The largest man in the room spoke up, but he was shaking in his chair so badly she wondered if he would have a heart-attack right then and there without her having to use the Death Note.

"I want the person closest to the phone to place a call to the FBI agency, requesting to speak with 'L'. Tell them that it is the one called Kira and that the station's upper-floor is being held hostage. Tell them that the proof was given on channel 45 in Kantou, Japan." He nodded and did as he was told.

Several minutes later, he looked up from the headpiece and said, "I don't think they believe me." He was obviously scared that she would kill him; he practically forced that entire last sentence out.

"Fine, turn the channel to some news broadcasting a live event concerning a criminal." It took all of ten seconds to find something. "Good," she turned back to the man on the phone, "tell him to turn to channel 113 in the Kantou region of Japan. The man he sees on TV will die after stabbing himself multiple times with the knife he is using to threaten a young woman." He repeated her words, and Sai began to inconspicuously write in her Death Note. A few moments later, what she had said would happen _did_ in fact occur. There was no mistaking who she was now. She strode over to the phone, telling everyone to remain in their seats until she told them to get up.

Taking it from the man, she held it up to her ear and listened to the stony silence on the other end. "As I have said before, I am the one referred to as the new Kira. I would like to speak with L, unless you want more deaths happening in the next few hours."

"I understand." came the reply from the other end.

She then addressed the producers in the room, "I want this next conversation to be broadcast, worldwide. Even if that means calling all of your other bosses now, I want it on the air everywhere in this world. Now hurry up!" Cell phones were immediately brought out as they called all of the different stations in different areas of the world and explained what was going on.

It took a while, close to an hour, but everything was ready for when L finally got on. The other main character of the show had yet to appear, but she knew he would, if only to keep people safe. The call was tapped and hooked up to a monitor that would display Sai's symbol on one side, which she had chosen to be JH in the same format as L's usually displayed letter. That L was of course shown on the other side of the screen.

"Start the broadcast now." Sai informed the men. They did as they were told.

"Hello to everybody out there." she said in her electronic voice. "Some of you may know and refer to me as the new Kira. I am here today broadcasting a conversation I will be having with the famous L, who is of course already trying to find me by now."

N finally decided to show up. Of course, his voice was also electronic. "This is L. I understand that I am now speaking with the current Kira, and there have been three deaths to prove this fact." He seemed condescending, even though he sounded like a computer.

"Yes, you are. You should also realize that this conversation is being broadcast throughout the entire world." He was silent at that. "I am making this call to clear up popular beliefs going around. Contrary to what you all may think, I do not wish to be known as Kira. I do not pass judgment and kill criminals. I offer services to those who have had traumatic experiences. I will allow them to kill someone they have a reasonable grudge against. However, I in turn will kill them three months later, accounting for the murder they commit. It is due to this difference between me and Kira that I would like to be known as Jaakuna Herupa."

L finally spoke, "What is it you hope to accomplish, _Jaakuna Herupa_? What is your goal in doing all of this?"

Sai cracked a huge smile under her mask. "I will cleanse the world of those who wish to hurt others. I will show them that they will pay like criminals do. I will not become the god of this world. I will become the executioner." She said this with as much authority and pride she could achieve.

L was silent for the longest of times. "You are no different from Kira… and I will hunt you down and find you, just like I did with him. I hope you're ready." His mechanical voice sounded strained.

"You can go ahead and try, but I know just as much as you do, so I'm already one step ahead of the game. I hope we can meet soon, _L_." With that, she hung up the phone and signaled a hysterically laughing Ryuk to pick her up. She heard all of the gasps as the men watched her disappear, and they fled into the night, the shinigami still laughing like a maniac.

**Feel free to leave a comment :)...**


	12. New Guests

**I want to thanks all those who are following this story, as well as those who have favorited it ^^. I especially want to thank people who have reviewed: Madi Lynn Thomas, Rinnu500, Cooljoe64, and uniquename200's NEW ACCOUNT (there was also an anonymous review that I would like to acknowledge, too). Thank you so much for helping inspire me. It helps get the story and ideas moving faster when I have people telling me that they like what I'm writing ^^  
**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Death Note, not only would L survive, but I would have put in a character similar to me to be his love interest ;). Since that didn't happen in the series, I don't own Death Note...  
**

**SAI'S HOME**

Ryuk deposited a smiling Sai in her usual bedroom. He had finally stopped laughing after a while, but the smile on her face never left, even though the shinigami was unable to see it due to the mask. She removed it and the cloak once she was standing.

"So, now that that's all done, can I ask what exactly you were thinking to contact Near in the first place?" He had been questioning her motives the second he heard the idea come out of her mouth, but wanted to see how it made things play out. Besides, he had known this girl for years now, and she didn't make hasty moves.

She sighed and forced herself to return to her usual state. "It was simple: I wanted to."

He was momentarily silent. "Just… because you wanted to?" He didn't think he had overestimated her. After all, she still hadn't even become a suspect even though it had already been four years. Light had entered that list within the first handful of months.

"Yes, and that's the best part. I wanted to demonstrate who I am and that I have power to scare people into giving me what I want." She couldn't make the smile that came to her face stay away.

"But, wait, wasn't that a little reckless? Couldn't something bad come out of all of this?" He really didn't want his time with her to end just because she wanted acknowledgement.

Her facial features, including her smile, grew cruel. "Ryuk, I thought you would've known better than that. _Of course_ it's reckless." Her laugh was cold. "That's the whole point. The original L was the first to make public contact, both through video demonstrations, as well as with Light himself. While it may seem careless, it's also useful. Most people will think that I have just made a huge mistake centered on my pride and that they will be able to get one step closer to me. They'll think I'm naïve, with some intelligence, and will soon make a mistake. But others, people like Near, will understand that I've demonstrated my true genius."

"And how's that?" It was hard to follow everything people like her said. Sometimes he could stare into space and still understand as much as he would if he listened.

"By dividing up the forces. Those who agree with my first statement, and those who understand the real message. It may seem simple as it is right now, but I'm going to be making a lot more 'slip-ups' for our dear police friends to find. The more they find, the more they'll go after someone else who fits their description, and the more they won't be listening to Near's own ideas. Kira did some of the same thing, but he used a lot more intimidation, so it wasn't surprising when some police forces decided to start helping out at certain points. Force can only go so far with a person. But, if you hit them psychologically," she knocked over a pen that had been standing straight up on her desk, "they are less likely to follow what is actually right, and more what they _feel_ is right."

"So, that's how you're gonna play it." He felt relieved once again.

She bit her bottom lip and started concentrating. "Now, if I could just decide what I want them to follow. I could set it up to look as though this centered around a whole organization, with the notebook owner acting as the individual who killed all clients. But I could also make it seem like one person who doesn't have a life and gets his or her kicks off of things like this." The wheels in her head were turning.

_While it wouldn't be unlikely for someone I personally find to do these events, it's also likely that a whole organization can get away with it. It wouldn't be too hard to assume that all members were high class individuals that no one would be able to trace. Someone doing what Jaakuna Herupa is would have to be like that in order to stay under the radar for this much time. Near himself might even consider this possibility. Under-the-table criminals who no one is able to find aren't uncommon…_

While she perused all of her options, Ryuk flew to get himself an apple, of course. _I wonder which choice she'll go with, and how she'll execute these 'slip-ups'._

**NEAR'S HQ**

"If anything, this latest recording should prove that who we're dealing with is immature. All we would have to do is watch for anything wrong with the killings. He's sure to make a mistake soon enough." Gevanni stated to the two standing in front of him. Near was off to the side creating an entire town out of regular Legos. Even as an adult he looked like a child with all of his toys. Still, one couldn't deny the very authoritative air that came off of him. The white-haired man spoke up then.

"I think you are wrong on that, Gevanni." Three pairs of eyes turned towards him. "Jaakuna Herupa has already established that he is not the previous Kira we've come to know, but something else entirely. If fact, there is no mistaking the genius move he has just demonstrated."

Rester seemed skeptical. "Genius? If anything, this latest broadcast would have authorities on higher alert. It also seems like whoever this guy is, he's naïve, with a large pride that could make him do something that will lead us right to him."

"That is exactly what he wants us to think." He connected another Lego to the top of his skyscraper. "_If anything_, Herupa has managed to establish a barrier. The ones who believe Gevanni's idea to be the case we are looking at… and the ones who see through this and realize that the barrier is all that he wanted to create by broadcasting worldwide."

Silence. "Why would he want to do that?"

"Because he's expecting this game to play out for a long time. As the days pass, and the police retrieve more and more hidden evidence which will undoubtedly start coming to light, they will begin to accept Gevanni's theory. With this in mind," he turned to start on a clock tower, "we can assume that he will be planning to lead them on a wild goose chase. One that won't be ending anytime soon. If it does, it means that he is most likely feeling cornered. Going back to the original question, we can expect different police agencies to start proceeding based on what they are being given. It is a basic human trait to follow one's own feelings over what is actually held as the truth." He was halfway done with his Lego tower. On the outside he was indifferent to the case at hand and the older people standing in the same room, but he was mentally damning this new criminal. _Unlike last time, I eventually won't be able to expect the police agencies to act against what I expect will be the real Herupa. This will divide their trust and their opinions of my reliability. That's exactly what this guy wants._

'_A FEW DAYS LATER'_

**IN FRONT OF DAIKOKU ACADEMY**

"Hmmmm…..hmmm….hm…hmmmm," the girl silently hummed to herself as she passed the familiar academy on her right. She swung her stuffed unicorn in her left hand as she walked on to her destination…

**AMORA SAI'S HOUSE**

Her mother and father were both currently out of the house. Sai herself was sitting down typing up a research paper on the benefits of mentoring programs in school. She was typing the last sentence as she heard a knock on her front door.

"Mhmmm… now who could that be?" Ryuk was floating in mid-air in a fashion similar to the way he would lay on a bed. He was also eating while he asked her the question, so it came out sounding garbled.

She rolled her eyes. "It's not like it matters. And I have no reason to be suspicious of anyone showing up at my door… yet."

She walked from the kitchen where she had been typing on a laptop to the front door. By this time, whoever was there had begun knocking more insistently. She opened the door with a little more force than necessary, but the person had been banging against it with a little more force than necessary, too. On the other side stood a girl who looked to be about fourteen years old. She had long, blonde hair, which was left down. Her eyes were a clear blue, and she was wearing a plaid dress similar to the one she had been wearing when she and Sai first met. Despite her age, she was holding a stuffed unicorn in one hand.

"What do you want?" Sai hissed at the girl. She didn't like this. Not only did this person piss her off with the look in her eyes that she could have sworn bordered on obsession, but she was also the first person she had ever saved. Sai had cleaned up the evidence of what the man had written on the tree, but it was still in the records that she had 'slashed' his throat out. She nearly got jail-time for that, but if Near ever expected the man of being her first, _true _victim, she would be dead meat. The thought of killing the little girl jumped into her mind… but she wouldn't kill just because she was a little paranoid.

"Amora Sai… I've always wanted to meet you, at least, officially that is." She ducked her head and started scuffling her feet. Sai relented and let the girl come inside. She led her into the kitchen, and finished typing the last few words before saving, and then sending the finished essay to her professor. After that, she turned her attention to the girl who was looking around the kitchen. "How did you find me?"

The girl's head snapped to attention. "Oh, I couldn't do anything to look for you until just recently… family business and whatnot…" She laughed nervously. "But I already knew your last name since that's how my dad called you before he died." She said it so effortlessly. "It was easy to look for you in the school system from there."

She mentally sighed. "So, why did you come here? Why come and see me?" There wasn't anything about Sai that really invited people to come and be friends with her, let alone carry out a conversation.

She looked really confused with the questions. "… What are you saying?... _Of course I came to find you!_ You saved me that day, and people usually just stroll by without caring. They were like that whenever my parents screamed at me in public." She stared at the floor, recalling all of the embarrassment her parents had brought her whenever they made a big deal of anything wrong she did.

"So? What do you want now? An autograph?" She knew her tone was beyond cold, but it was better for everyone if the girl started hating her anyways.

She squared her shoulders and looked Sai straight in the eyes, "I want to be by your side. I want to help you if you ever get hurt…. I want to repay your kindness…. But I also want to be with you. Just standing next to you will make me happy." _Yep, it is definitely obsession that is making her eyes glint like that._ She smiled at Sai, who noticed that there was also a peaceful calm about her, one that should clash with Sai's own atmosphere, but didn't.

She swallowed, thinking everything through. She could always come up with a plan to take care of things later, if it came to that. "Fine… you can follow me around or whatever it is you want to do, just don't get in my way. And if I tell you to do something, you _better_ do it when I say to. Is that clear?" She made her voice as menacing as she could.

"Oh, yes! Yes! I'll do whatever you say whenever you say it!" She was practically jumping on the stool she had come to occupy.

"Alright… now, what is your name?" Sai hadn't been told what it was yet.

"It's Ayuza Chizuru. But I let my close friends call me Chizu, so that's what you can call me by." Her face was glowing.

"Alright… Chizu, looks like we're… friends… from now on?" Her voice was awkward, mostly due to the concept being completely new to her. Even before her siblings had died, her parents were paranoid and didn't let them out of the house that often, especially not to socialize. Even in school, Sai had kept to herself because of the way her parents often acted.

If Chizu's face was glowing before, it was practically beaming sunshine rays now. Sai felt her eyes soften of their own accord. _That smile, Gurren used to smile just like that._

She shook her head. "Does your mom know you're here?"

That seemed to slap the smile right off of Chizu's face. "She doesn't really care where I am anymore so long as the police aren't standing at her door."

A short silence followed that sentence. "Hold on for a second." Sai went up to her bedroom and fished her barely used phone out of her satchel. She placed a call to her father, since he was more likely to hear her out. "Hello, Dad?... No, the police are not involved in this phone call… Yes, I do remember the conditions to call you in… That's not the point right now. I needed to ask you about something…" She told her father about Chizu. He yelled a lot at first, but he subsided when she told him that she would be taking care of her expenses.

"All right," she said when she went back downstairs, finding the shinigami and girl sitting across from each other, though Chizu was unknowing of it. "I've called my dad, and he will tell my mom, so you can stay in one of our guest bedrooms here. I will be paying for your expenses, so don't go asking them for _anything_. They'll get really mad about it."

"Thanks! But, wait… do you have a job or something?"

"No, you could call the money I have inheritance from certain people. There's a lot of it, which is why I usually pay for my things."

"Oh, so… you're mom and dad don't like you that much, either?" Despite the intrusive question, Sai didn't feel as though she was being looked down upon.

"No… they don't." That was the end of that conversation.

"Okay, so which room is mine?" Chizu had gone back to her excited demeanor.

"Follow me." With that, Sai led her to her room, which was located behind the first door at the top of the staircase.

'_TEN DAYS LATER'_

"I still can't believe you actually accepted her. You don't seem like the type." Ryuk was flying next to her on her way home from the bus station. She hadn't been able to take the car for a while, so she began to grow used to taking the bus. As for her new house occupant, Chizu was often outside running around or inside doing homework when Sai wasn't there. But when she was, Chizu was stuck on her like glue unless she told her to go away or go to sleep. With Chizu there, Sai started locking her door so the blonde wouldn't go into her room while she was away with her clients during the few opportunities she had.

"I know I don't seem like the type. I didn't think that I would take her in either." Her voice grew quiet as she continued on. In all honesty, there was probably no way Sai would have taken her in, or keep her for that matter, if Chizu didn't have that smile that reminded her of Gurren, or that laugh that was occasionally accompanied by a snort, so much like Tetsu's was. "I guess we all make exceptions, don't we?"

They walked on in silence for a while. _God, if he's going to fly that close to the ground, why doesn't he just walk?_ Her mind went on to think of different things, such as all of the assignments she had been given. Ever since entering college, Sai had completed everything she was given. It really was a new leaf for her. Or maybe she just wanted to get as far from that house as possible.

She was halfway there when Ryuk interrupted her thoughts. "Wow, I can't believe how uncanny but familiar this all is." He chuckled a bit.

"What are you talking about, Ryuk?" Sai whispered in case someone might happen to pass by.

He flew up closer so his face was next to her ear. "Someone's following you, and it's not some kid."

She froze for half a second, but covered it up by completely stumbling, acting as though she had just tripped over her own feet. Her face grew into an angry mask before she straightened it, and herself, out.

_What….. the…FUCK? There is absolutely no way, NO WAY, Near has already started to suspect me! It's just not possible. I haven't left any clues that would make me stand out. Okay… I just need to cool down and think this through. I need to come up with a way to stay composed so that it wouldn't make me look suspicious. Of course, I can't find out who this guy is and kill him, either, or else Near would smell it and I would be a dead-giveaway. Just like Light._

She forced her breathing to stay normal, and maintained her usual pace towards her house. She would stay inside for a while, and take out the trash, asking Ryuk if he was still around before going back inside. _At the very least, I need to know whether there are already cameras up._ She had Ryuk check for any, saying he couldn't eat any apples if there were any (surprisingly, small objects would not become invisible if they weren't latched onto his clothes in a way, making them apart of him). When he reported that he had found none, she let him have an apple.

"So, you didn't see any wire-taps either, did you?" She wrote it down on a piece of paper and let him see it.

He chuckled. "Nope. Your house is spyware free. But it makes me wonder about that follower of yours." He went back up to her room.

"No spyware, and yet a follower?" She tried to analyze this new bit of information.

Once it got later in the evening, Sai took Ryuk with her as she emptied the trash, asking him if the guy was still there. "Yep, still here. I wonder if he's gonna switch off with somebody or keep watch on you by himself?" He took a large bite out of the apple he was eating and went to go get some more.

Sai didn't like the feeling of being watched, but she would live with it.

'_NINE NIGHTS LATER'_

"Oh God." Sai sat on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Ryuk was gone taking care of her users, but he had still sensed that the follower was waiting around at her house. She almost felt like going out there and busting his ass up just because, but she didn't want to let him know that she knew he was there. If he was a special agent, Sai shouldn't have been able to sense him. So acknowledging that she knew would make her seem suspicious.

After a while of staring at the blank ceiling, she decided to go downstairs and make herself a late-night sandwich. Chizu was sleeping peacefully in her bed, so Sai was alone in the kitchen.

She took out all of the ingredients that she wanted to use. Mayonnaise, ham, cheese, and a bottle of mustard were set across the counter, with the bread and butter-knife in her hand. She took the plate out of a nearby cupboard and proceeded to make her sandwich. She just finished, and was starting to clean up the supplies, when a loud _thunk! _sounded behind her. She turned around… and was astonished at what she saw.

The Death Note was lying right on the island in the middle of the kitchen. _You bastard, Ryuk! Now is completely the wrong time for jokes. But, why would he make such a stupid joke, especially if he didn't want me to be caught so soon?_

Contemplating this, she picked it up.

When she looked up, a long limbed and very skinny being stood before her and it was not Ryuk. The entire head resembled a human skull, with the rest of the body being covered in bluish skin. His build was similar to Ryuk's, but he was obviously a different kind of shinigami. He wore clothes that were completely black: a long sleeved shirt that fit him loosely, jeans similar to Ryuk's, and a cloak that covered most of his frame. She could see a strap that was obviously used to hold his Death Note… and it had a notebook in it right then. Red eyes stared at her from within the skull.

When he spoke, his voice was dry, but it did not sound menacing; at least, not to Sai's ears. "I am the shinigami known as Mujitsu Satsujin." He stared at her, as if waiting for her to say something.

She took a breath and regained her calm. "I am the human known as Amora Sai." She decided she would talk to him similarly until she knew more about him.

"I know that." he stated simply.

Silence. Sai was feeling very uncomfortable. "May I ask why you are here?"

"Because you are now the owner of that Death Note," he pointed to the one in her hands, "so I must stay with you until it either runs out of pages to write names on… or you die." For some reason, this shinigami, _Satsujin_, didn't give off the air that Ryuk did. Ryuk was uncaring of what became of her, though he wouldn't hasten her death. Mujitsu Satsujin, or innocent killer, did not come off as the uncaring type for some reason.

"All right, but _why_ is the Death Note in my possession?"

"Because I wanted it to be." That annoyed her.

"Would you mind my asking why it is you wanted it to be in my possession?" She threw up her malicious façade.

"I have no problem telling you. I'll recount all that I've done, from the Shinigami Realm where it matters up until I got here."

_**Satsujin's Flashback…**_

Mujitsu Satsujin was walking around on the dead land of his home. There wasn't much else to do, and nowhere to go, really. It was in this state that he stumbled across Komoji **(A/N it means sensitive)**.

Komoji was watching a visible link to the human world. In particular, the link seemed to be following a young blue-head around. Her hair was long and she was wearing a beautiful sundress that swayed with each step she took. She was walking towards some destination, but Satsujin couldn't tell what.

He inquired about Komoji's interest in the girl. He replied that he couldn't really give an answer, but that he had started watching her a while ago, and just couldn't stop. It had been going on like this for over fourteen years. Komoji was obviously in love with this girl. He barely ever turned away from watching her.

On her fated day, Komoji was especially nervous. He was sweating (as much as a shinigami could). Satsujin stood there and watched. He knew that Komoji had secretly been dreading this day, but he was a shinigami, so there was no possible way Satsujin would have comforted him.

In the link, the girl had suddenly gotten caught between two gangs who were having a shootout. She was close to escaping, but a young rookie caught sight of her and raised his gun to her head. She tried to duck, but it would be useless, since the time on her head was fast approaching zero.

Komoji did exactly as Satsujin thought he would: he saved the girl. He wrote the rookie's name down with a gunshot to the head being his death. After that, what came next was not surprising. Shinigamis, being beings who stole the life of humans, were not permitted to also save it. Komoji began to wither away, whimpering until he was eventually no more. His Death Note lay flat on the ground where it had dropped from his hands when they were no longer capable of holding it.

He picked it up, deciding to keep it for himself. Satsujin was in the process of walking away… but stopped when he glanced back up at the screen. It had jumped to a random area on Earth when Komoji was no longer controlling it. It was there that he saw a girl with piercing, golden eyes. Their color was as bright as the sun, but they radiated more animosity than pleasantness. Her hair and clothing were dark as well. Only her skin stood pale in the heat of the afternoon day on Earth. He might have not given it a second thought, if those eyes didn't seem to call him even from the Shinigami Realm.

_**End of Flashback…**_

"I am not one known for having a big heart. I am most usually watching others suffer without blinking an eye; but you, Amora Sai, have the exact aura of darkness that I often find myself cloaked in. I have watched you since then, as well as your past, and I understand who you are."

Sai was dumbfounded. "Are you saying that you are in love with me?"

"I would not take it that far. I am fond of dark things similar to you. I have watched and understood you long enough to not want you to suffer, but I will not save you from your natural end." He gestured at the notebook in her hands, "I have decided to give that to you as the blue-haired girl Komoji originally died for is now dead anyways."

She blinked a couple of times, taking a bite out of the sandwich on her plate. "You came down here to give me this notebook, because you care for me and do not wish me to suffer?" The question was rhetorical, so Satsujin left her to her thoughts on that.

After a while, though, he interrupted her train of thought involving a new plan centered on having a second notebook. "While I realize that Ryuk has already told you some of the basic principles of the Death Note, I realize that he could… _withhold_ information, if only to make things more entertaining. Now that you have two Death Notes, I can tell you what that means and how it can help out with your current dilemma." The two held the conversation for a long time, Sai's eyes widening in wonder and calculation. She now had a plan for the possibility of Near tailing her. She was also informed of other things Ryuk had failed to mention.

"And regarding the human who is watching your house…" Satsujin paused.

"Yes?"

"He is no detective; he is merely a new stalker." Sai winced. She knew she was going to be kicking some ass in the near future.

**As usual, thank you for reading ^^. Oh, and if you have already reviewed before, please feel free to keep reviewing. I appreciate all reviews (whether they're from the same person or not), and they help inspire me :)...**


	13. Unveiled Truth

**Hello, and thank you for reading the newest chapter to my fan-fiction. As some of you may have noticed, I changed the image identifying this story. I felt the old one represented the Kira case too much with the young Near and the Kira dolls surrounding him. With that in mind, I'd like to take some time to respond to those who have reviewed (and I thank all those who have followed and/or put my story in their favorites.  
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**Cooljoe64: Thanks ^^.  
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**Chester-Grey: Thank you, I really wanted to make my story sound interesting.  
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**Rinnu500: I'm glad I could please you enough to make you virtually die ;)... But I hope you've been revived so you can read this new installment :).  
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**Madi Lynn Thomas: It's awesome that I could make your day. Thank you for making mine by giving me such a great review!  
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**lie2me1moretime: Thank you for being interested in my story new reviewer ^^.  
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**uniquename200's NEW ACCOUNT: I'm glad I could get such praise from an author I also like :).  
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**And with that, I just want to say two more things: 1) I have a poll up on my profile to help me decide which anime I should write a fan-fic for next, if you're interested in helping me decide, and 2) I don't own Death Note, so you can't sue me for that...  
**

**NEAR'S HQ**

"What are your theories on this, Near?" Rester stood off to the side, giving Near enough space to build his town out of dice.

"I believe it is very possible that our suspect is in Japan. Considering that this person directly confronted Sakura TV like this, I would say that it wasn't altogether wrong. However, no evidence was left behind to be able to trace it to any individual. Also, after watching the tapes that recorded the whole incident at the station, I believe that we may not find any evidence regardless of whether we combed the entire place or not." The soft clicks from stacking the dice echoed throughout the room for a while.

"How can we be absolutely sure of that? Wouldn't it be better if we just locked the station down and conducted a thorough investigation?" Gevanni asked.

"No, we won't be able to find anything. The tapes we watched showed a dark figure only in the meeting room. However," he stacked another die and the click was a little louder, "no other footage showed anyone other than the workers entering or leaving. In fact, one of the last bits of footage we have makes me believe that something much more happened besides walking."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean to say, even though the last bit we see of him is in a corner of the camera's field of view, you can almost see as he is moved by something else, and then disappears." The only sound was of Near's dice as the other agents thought over his late statement.

"So… the shinigami is helping him in some way?" Lidner asked of the white-haired man.

"Yes, that is exactly what I am thinking. And if he is willing to go to this extent in helping him, we can also assume that Herupa has forged some sort of bond with the shinigami."

"Wait, if there's a chance that it's that old shinigami Ryuk, wouldn't you be able to see him Near?"

He smirked. "Yes, one would think that. However, I can't be certain since I burned both Death Notes. It could be that I became unable to see Ryuk after burning it, but retained my memories as it was never given back to the god of death, and he never took them away." He found this theory to be the most plausible.

"I see. But, other than where he is located, who would be our most likely suspects?" Rester inquired.

He was nearing the completion of the construction of the smaller buildings, and then he moved onto the skyscrapers, allowing the agents time to think separately before putting forth his own thoughts. "From an early age, children are learning the differences between right and wrong. Not doing something you were told not to do versus doing something regardless of being informed otherwise. This would also apply to revenge. Young ones are shown and informed that revenge will not always work out, though it does work at times. From this, they obtain the concept that they are free to decide whether they should avenge their own pain or let it slide, like others around them might want. In the end, the majority will decide to let it go or wait for an opportunity that is not too extreme. The small percentage left can spend their entire lives plotting something to counter those they feel are hurting them. Humans lay blame with those they feel are most responsible. This, of course, means that they will not see themselves as the source of the problem. It's only natural that they would want to execute their plans to their fullest extent when you think of it in this way.

"Jaakuna Herupa is a part of this minority. Whoever he is, it is more than 97% likely that he has experienced a traumatic event. If this factor does exist, we can assume that he was forced to commit an act unwillingly, explaining the reason behind letting others kill the people they hate, and dying three months later in return." The skyscraper's height was on the same level as Near's eyes, though he was sitting on the floor in his usual fashion while constructing it.

"So, we should search for any records similar to that?" Lidner poised her fingers over the keyboard in anticipation of the order.

"Yes… though I have a feeling we still might not be able to find anything." He had momentarily stopped stacking and was now curling a strand of hair around his finger repeatedly. "Gevanni," he said toward the man, "I want you to start researching how individuals are able to access and request Jaakuna Herupa's services."

He nodded, strapping a second loaded gun to his waist and concealing it. Gevanni then turned and left the Head Quarters.

**AMORA SAI**

Sai walked down the streets like she usually would. She was on her way to the same magazine store she had visited when she listened in to the conversation between those two girls. She was going to purchase another gothic magazine like the one she had been reading. It all seemed quite intriguing, though she would never wear any of it. She found herself feeling relieved now that she went outside more. Of course, people still didn't strike up conversations with her, but she was just fine with that. She was only out for the fresh air and whatnot.

Not only that, but she was still dealing with her stalker. Ever since Satsujin had shown up a few days ago, she knew that she wasn't being investigated. She hadn't confronted him yet, mostly due to the fact that she thought he could come into play later on. It might even work to her advantage if she waited to deal with him until she really was being lawfully tailed.

Sai had decided a lot of her future plan upon receiving her second notebook. She did not do anything what-so-ever to this notebook. She simply hid it on Satsujin, so that it was always handy. Not only would this prevent other humans from touching it, but any human that did touch it would not be able to really prove anything by a shinigami with two Death Notes. Satsujin didn't mind doing this, and he was always at her side, so she wasn't as worried about him as she was about Ryuk.

He never acted as though he was in love with her, but he didn't act like she was any lesser than him due to her human status. He would often strike up conversations, asking about her thoughts on different things. He even occasionally helped with her planning. Unlike Ryuk, he didn't laugh at anything, he just stood quietly and observed what he could and left only when Sai asked something of him.

_He's so much more helpful. I wonder if I ever could have planned this far ahead without him. _Sai had to admit that she was growing more tolerant of his presence, but she still didn't completely trust him yet.

Sai returned home after purchasing the newest issue. Unlike before, she was aware of the stalker's presence, but didn't let it get to her. Once she got inside, she checked to make sure she locked all of the doors and windows.

She started up the stairs to her room when Chizu's head peaked out over the rails. "Hey Sai, welcome back!" She smiled.

"Yeah, I was just out buying something." Sai was usually vague when talking to Chizu, so the girl was used to it by now.

"Alright," she pouted, "well, I have to study for this major test we've got coming up, so I can't do anything else with you today… But I'll be able to do anything once I'm finished with the school year." She smiled again, and ran back into her room.

"Knock yourself out, kid." she muttered under her breath. As long as studying was keeping Chizu preoccupied through the night, Sai was happy.

She walked into her room, locking the door after her. She then went to her desk and pulled out a box she had concealed from common people who happened to walk into her room. She placed it on the bed and pulled out the contents.

Ryuk was the first to break the silence. "So? What's your decision for who the police tail? And what's with the stuff in the box?"

Satsujin stood quietly next to Ryuk, but she could tell that he was annoyed by the other shinigami. He was especially annoyed that Ryuk was also attached to Sai, though he didn't voice his concerns.

"I've decided to make it look like an entire organization. I'll start making adjustments to all of the deaths that my users cause from now on in accordance to this. Depending on the death, I will write that a certain… item… or something else like that will be dropped nearby to make it appear as if the death was done by human hands. For the users who are too scared to write down a cause of death, I'll make sure there are some sort of fingerprints or other form of identification that are close to the body. Of course, this means that the police will chase down whoever it belongs to, but will soon have to release them due to lack of evidence.

"This sort of thing isn't surprising if the organization is made up of high-class criminals who are all working under the one possessing the Death Note, especially if that one person held their lives over their heads. With that, I can make the incision in the force even larger. The only question then would be how many people were planning on siding with Near?" She shook her head.

"As for the last question," Sai held up many special tools that she got, though there was a record of her buying them, "I am making a fake I.D."

Both shinigami looked confused, which was a rare emotion for Satsujin. He was the one who spoke up this time. "What would be the point of that?" his low and dry voice asked.

She smiled. "What _would _be the point of that?" She started working on her new fake I.D., which would show her as being twenty-one. "I've found that I have a very strong stomach for alcohol."

Ryuk just stared at the girl, but Satsujin was remembering a time in Sai's past when she had accidentally drank her parents' liquor without realizing what it was. She had only begun to feel tipsy after the fifth cup or so.

"Of course, I'm only around nineteen, so I can't legally drink yet. With this, I can go out and drink a bit, without getting entirely drunk." She smiled even wider.

Then, Ryuk and Satsujin smiled with her. "I get it. You want to give off the image of being uncaring and unkind, while also illegally drinking alcohol. Any investigator would see something like that as normal and reckless teenage behavior."

"Exactly. Light did his best to appear like the perfect model student. As a result, he looked too perfect for L's liking. Then L started getting closer to him, and he started to slip up a bit." She was nearly done. She had already started making it last night, so the picture was already on and Sai just had to make a few adjustments to make it believable. If she wanted to, she could make it a real I.D., but that was really advanced, and she was just another college student with a high score in all of her classes right now… not a genius.

It only took her a couple more minutes to finish. Once she was done, she hid it in her wallet along with her real I.D., which was in a separate sleeve. Now she could start going out to clubs every night. Although it pained her and made her feel a little more vulnerable, she would have to leave her stun-gun home on these little excursions, so as not to stand out. But it would be worth it.

She packed all of the materials back up and hid the box again. It wouldn't be particularly bad if a professional searching through her room found it, which would only serve to make her look less like a suspect. Worst case scenario: she ended up doing a little time for underage drinking and forgery. But that was something she could live with. She wouldn't even have to worry about it since Satsujin had promised to take Herupa's duties on himself should something happen to her. She was glad for that since she didn't really want to rely on Ryuk all that much.

At any rate, Sai had nothing left to do since she had completed all of her assignments for the university and Herupa was currently only working at night. Since she was technically free for the next few hours, she decided to go outside and walk around for a bit.

As she was heading downstairs, Chizu's door opened and she stepped out.

"I thought you were studying?" Sai asked in a neutral tone.

"I am, but I wanted to get a drink since my throat is dry." Sai surveyed the girl, who seemed to go nervous under her gaze. Even Chizu wasn't completely immune to Sai and her cold air.

"I'm going somewhere again. If I'm not back in time, go ahead and make yourself some dinner." She turned and went down the stairs again.

"Ooh, where are you going? Out to buy another book?" She was overly curious, even when Sai barely answered her questions anyways.

"Mind your own business." And Sai started walking toward the front door.

Once outside, she was immediately aware of the feeling of being watched by someone. She didn't particularly want him following her around when she was just walking.

Soon, she barely registered the other presence, and was off thinking in her own world. _I wonder what it would be like to be an animal. Not having to worry about silly things like social rankings and racism, or other things like that. All that would exist is the next meal and surviving in the place I was born to. Animals…_

Her thoughts wandered in this direction for a while. She spent hours walking around in general peace. She even started putting her hands in her pocket and singing famous songs to herself. Considering only her stalker was in the proximity, she felt just fine doing it outside of her house. She was even more thankful when she didn't hear the gods of death chattering or doing anything to interrupt her silent time.

It was starting to get darker, which only made Sai feel even more comfortable. She gazed up at the few visible stars in the sky and felt content for the moment. She was still walking as she did this, so she came upon her childhood park without realizing it.

It was old, with rust lining all of the metal and the swings creaking as the wind blew them into motion a couple of times. The structures looked stable, so Sai decided to sit on a swing. The same swing she had sat on many times as a kid.

This park had been one of the only places that Sai was allowed to stay with Gurren and Tetsu without being completely supervised by an adult. There were many neighborhood watch patrols around the park, so they were safe.

Sai closed her eyes and remembered for a while.

"_I'm the queen of the swings! Just look how high up I can go!"_

"_Yeah right, Gurren. You're cheating. I didn't even get a chance to swing yet."_

"_You can cheat in swinging, Tetsu. You're supposed to be the smart one!"_

"_Hey!"_

"_Neither of you are going to be anything! I'm the ultimate queen!"_

"_LIAR!"_

"_LIAR-LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!"_

"_Yeah, what proof do you have?"_

"… _Well… I'M THE OLDEST OF COURSE! AGE BEATS EVERYTHING!"_

"_No fair!"_

"_I wish I was older, and then you would have to call me king and bow down before me."_

Faint laughter from her memory faded into the night as she opened her eyes again. There were some things that you just couldn't get back, not even if you brought something similar into your life. A brief image of Chizu flashed into her head. But there was mostly just exhaustion. Exhaustion of the world, and especially exhaustion from past memories.

Through all of her weariness, she felt someone walking up to her. _Damn! If it's the stalker, then I'll have to act. Unless he's just approaching me to talk a bit, thinking that I'm clueless about his presence. If that's the case, I can still use him later on._

She waited patiently for a looming figure to come up behind her, but she was surprised when a little blonde head sat down on the swing next to her.

"Chizu? Were you following me?"

"Sort of. But not for long; I finished my homework up a while ago and came to a nearby library. See?" She pulled a bag up for Sai to see. It had a couple of large books in it. "That's when I saw you walking towards this park. I decided to come when I finished picking up all the materials I needed." Chizu began to gaze at the sky.

Sai did the same. "You never told me what happened in your family… I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to."

"Oh, I guess it's no biggie. I just didn't want you to think of me like I was some pitiable girl, like a lot of other people do. Not like they help or anything." Anger flashed in her eyes. "The usual: My parents were more worried about themselves than they were about me. They practically screamed at me if I so much as _breathed_ wrong in public. My dad especially hated me, but he always had that lusty look in his eyes. My mom wasn't as bad, there were times when she would at least act like she was an actual mother… but that didn't happen often. She and my dad wanted nothing more to get rid of me, but they didn't want to tarnish their reputation by putting me into adoption, so they came up with a way to please what they both wanted. You saw that plan in action out in the woods." Her eyes looked mature at the moment.

There was silence for a while, but it wasn't one of awkwardness; instead, it held understanding. "What were these family circumstances that kept you away for four years?"

"Oh, my mom was pissed that you had uncovered what her husband was going to do, so she sent me off to different relatives. But I kept on acting up until they all sent me back to my mom. From there, I came to find you." The rusty swing Chizu sat on began to creak more and more as she moved herself forward and backward for a while. "Can I ask what your story is?"

Sai gave the best answer she could: "I lost a couple of young relatives, and no one looked at me the same. That's pretty much it." Chizu could tell by the look in her eyes that there was much more to her story than that, but she knew not to pry. If Sai had grown up this way, with coldness radiating off her constantly, and bright eyes that shamed darkness, she had to have a reason to not want to voice it.

"Do you think we should start heading back?" Sai nodded and got up. Chizu followed suit and they were soon walking side-by-side on the walkway. Sai had her hands in her pocket again, and the blonde girl copied her actions. In no time, they were back to the house. Her parents' cars were in the driveway, which meant that both were in the house. In their defense, they hadn't been outwardly hostile towards to the newest addition, but they didn't completely conceal it, either.

"Go around back, Chizu." Sai gave in her most commanding voice. Chizu herself was used to this sort of thing, and was glad that Sai acted protective where her parents were concerned. She left Sai's side and went around the house to the door that was located under where Sai's room was.

Sai continued on to the front door when she thought Chizu was a good distance away. It wasn't that she thought the girl might get hurt, it was that she didn't want her to have to put up with the same thing that Sai did.

She reached for the door, but paused when her hand was on the handle. "Satsujin, Ryuk. Go upstairs to my room and check for anything, alright?"

"Yeah, got it." Ryuk said, though he was uncharacteristically silent the entire time. That, or Sai just hadn't been paying any attention to him. Satsujin followed after him.

She sighed and opened the door… immediately being confronted with the smell of alcohol. _Well, shit…_ It was best to stay out of their way when they were drunk, but Sai strode through the living room nonetheless. Empty bottle littered the tabletops.

"Where the hell've you been?" Her father addressed her while in his drunken state. Her mother was lying across the couch, oblivious to the world.

"I was out doing a few things." Her tone was icy, to say the least. Mr. Amora caught onto this and glared.

"You got a problem with me, bitch?" His words were so slurred she wasn't even sure if the last word was a curse or not.

She looked as though she was contemplating this. "Nah. So I'll just be going up to my room right now." She would love to kick his ass into his face, but she was so close to being free of them that it would just be stupid.

Even so, it didn't seem like the man would be having any of her attitude. "You wait right there." He got up and drunkenly staggered over to her. Sai stood her ground. She refused to show this man any emotion, even anger.

With that, it was no surprise that she kept up her careless façade… as he grabbed the front of her shirt and shoved her into the nearest wall. "You lose that tone when you speak to me." His threat was quiet in her ear.

She hated how close he was. "Why don't you learn to not pick a fight while you're drunk?" Her voice was low and menacing. The man seemed to blink twice at this, but then his face was a mask of rage and he raised his fist. It connected with her face and she fell to the floor. Blood started to gush out of her nose.

Her fists clenched and she was on the verge of using her self-defense skills on him, but she knew she shouldn't waste any more time on him. Instead of paying attention to the satisfied smirk on his face, she decided to go to her room. Picking herself up off the floor, she used one hand to hold her bloody nose while the other helped her keep balance as started the walk to the bathroom. There she dampened a cloth and held it to her face to soak up the blood until it stopped. Once that was done, she inspected the damage. Nothing was broken, so she felt fine and went to her bedroom.

"What happened to you, beauty queen?" Ryuk began talking the second she walked in the room.

"Nothing." She went to her desk and pulled up the request log.

"I have a question about all this." Ryuk spoke up from the corner of the room where he had been standing. "If Near is an intelligent human, then he should already have figured out that Jaakuna Herupa was probably a kid who has experienced a traumatic event? Knowing that, wouldn't you become a suspect with your past, Sai?" He looked at her with a small amount of amusement in his eyes.

She shook her head. "No, I won't."

"What about your parents, even they will make you seem more suspicious and get you caught." he argued on.

"No, he won't find something like that. You see, Ryuk, my past… it doesn't exist, and my parents, the people here, aren't my real ones."

**As usual, thanks for reading ^^!  
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	14. Covered Tracks

**Wow, it was unbelievably hard to write this chapter. First of all, I also wrote the first chapter to my new fan-fic, called Unkown Desires. Yes, I am advertising it, though I'm not sure whether it's allowed...**

**Anyways, thanks to all those who have added this story to their favorites list and those who have added it to their alert list. And now I'll respond to my reviews:  
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**lie2me1moretime: ;) Thanks for the new review, and I'm glad that you still find my story interesting. Here's my next chapter ^^.  
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**Chester-Grey: *bats eyelashes* I try, and thank you so much for informing me of that glitch in my last chapter. I updated it since I forgot to put that scene in there. (I warn you, though, I only added one more sentence.)  
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**Rinnu500: I really hope you enjoy my latest chapter that will answer the cliffhanger from last time ^^!  
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**Marcus Absent: I'll try to answer all of your reviews right here. **

**1) I hope I don't disappoint you with what I have planned ;).  
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**2) Thanks for noticing that. I wanted it to be like the whole Jealous/Misa/Rem thing. However, I have a different plan in mind for the new shinigami ;).  
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**3) Here's my new chapter for you to critique, and I take pleasure in your compliment.  
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* * *

_**FLASHBACK…**_

White walls. A long metal table. Three metal chairs.

_These things were barely registering in Sai's mind as she sat alone on one side of the table and two big, scary men sat on the other. _

A sterile smell. A big mirror taking up most of the wall in front of her. Voices…

"_Excuse me, honey, but we need to know as much of what happened as possible." It was the man on the left, with a black mustache and black hair, his skin a light olive shade. His muscles were huge, and his stare was intimidating even though he was trying not to scare the little girl._

"_That's right, we're only trying to help." This came from the American man next to him. His hair was blonde, but his face was devoid of any hair other than his eyebrows. His body wasn't as tuned up, but there was still an unmistakably hard aura radiating off of him._

_Sai stared blankly at both of them. _How can these people possibly help me? They're dead, and they're not coming back. Gurren won't get to run like she used to. Or smell roses like she always loved to whenever dad brought them home on special occasions. She won't sing to the birds, she won't eat her favorite cereal Coco Puffs, and she won't breathe softly while she sleeps. Tetsu won't jump on the swings like a super hero and pretend to fly. He won't try to tackle me awake in the morning when he wants to watch TV, and he especially won't constantly pick on Gurren by trying to steal her cereal. No, they won't have those chances anymore… AND IT'S ALL MY FAULT!

_Tears prickled in the side of her eyes. She might have cried, if most of her tears hadn't been shed while she was recovering in the hospital. Her parents had been crying with her, but they still didn't know the truth yet._

"_It was me." Her voice was barely a whisper. She just wanted to get this over with and go whither away where no one would bother her. Even so, talking hurt, especially about that night._

"_Excuse me?" Mr. Olive on the left asked._

_She cast her dead eyes on the table and spoke up. "I killed them, Gurren and Tetsu." Her voice was monotonous; she didn't want to fix it._

_Both officers looked taken aback. "You killed them?" It was the American's turn to talk apparently._

_None of the criminals had admitted to the deaths of Amora Gurren and Amora Tetsu. They only took responsibility for ransacking the house and the injury inflicted upon Sai, but refused to acknowledge the younger children's deaths._

_Mr. Olive took out a tape-recorder once he got over his initial shock. Mr. American followed suit and took out a notepad and pencil from a bag that appeared to be under the table._

"_Please recount the events as best you can." the former man said._

_And so, she told them, but she didn't once look up from the cold table in front of her. Her eyes remained dead-looking, and her voice matched it perfectly. Her head began to hurt more and more as she continued on, but it was nothing compared to the ache in her heart._

_When she was done, she finally looked up at the two officers, only to see a mixture of pity and anger in their eyes. The anger wasn't directed at her of course, but it was all the same to Sai. It was a look she knew she didn't want to ever see again. They began packing their equipment back up, taking the time to grasp her shoulders and say, "Everything's going to be alright." Then they left her to herself until her parents came to get her. It would take a while, though, since they had to sign a few documents and listen to Sai's testimony. It would only be hell for her after that._

_She glanced up into the mirror in front of her and wasn't shocked at what she saw: disheveled, black hair fell past the girl-in-the-mirror's shoulders; her face was as white as a sheet, though the areas around her eyes were red; the golden eyes which once held a few rays of sunshine were bleak and flat; her lips were pulled down in a frown that would soon become natural. Tentatively, Sai raised a hand to her forehead. She didn't like the way those eyes looked either, so she pulled the bangs down until they obscured them from view._

_Shortly after, two shocked parents came to take Sai home, and the look they gave her was the worst yet. There was pity. Then there was also the disbelief. But it was mostly how one would see another who was holding a weapon. _

_The ride home was silent._

_Regardless of how vehemently the accused men argued, all the evidence found in the Amora residence strengthened the testimony against them. Sai was never told what their sentence was, but she secretly wished they received a lifetime in prison, if not the death penalty._

_Amora Shari and Amora Kukai, Sai's true parents, spent their days quietly after that. They no longer went out together unless Sai was attached to them. Other than that, one of the two would always be taking care of the young one. They rarely went outside to let her smell fresh air, but they had barely gone outside even before the incident, so she was already used to it._

_Because of this, no one really could remember what she looked like or her name for that matter. Perhaps that had been their plan all along. It wouldn't be surprising, considering the fact that they both used to be high class CIA agents before retiring and settling down together, eventually getting new jobs and having children. No what their intentions were, Sai never questioned them. _

_She grew more anti-social as time went by. Her hair had been dyed and she was told to wear contacts that would change her eye color. The Amoras had said they just wanted her to have a chance to live normally, which would be impossible if anyone saw how she really looked. But it didn't matter since she forced her bangs over her face, and always stared at the ground whenever she went outside. This was especially the case when she went to school. Her grades weren't outstanding, and her name was Amora Saito in the school system, with mousy brown hair and blue eyes. In other words, she was a different person._

_Some might make the mistake of saying that she was living quite peacefully for someone in her situation, but Saito knew better. While a description of her actual appearance hadn't been released in the news report, her parents' names had, and it didn't take long for the kids in school to put two-and-two together. They pushed her around, calling her a cold-blooded murderer. Heartless. A monster. No one understood that it was the lesser of two evils. If she hadn't killed them herself, they would have suffered as much as she did at the hands of their aggressors. But they were just naïve little kids, so Saito held no grudges against any of them. _

_She ignored them as best she could, though her anger continued to build up as time went by. Sure enough, one day her anger finally reached its boiling point. While she didn't start cutting herself out of self-hatred, she did do something that changed her life and who she was. _

_Amora Saito landed on her butt, promptly bringing forth laughter from Kushina and his friend, Hajime. "Well, would you look at that?" His voice was mocking. "Little Miss Murderer can kill her own flesh and blood, but she can't raise a finger to protect herself without a mighty gun." More laughter erupted from the two, as well as some passersby. They all held a hatred in their eyes that made her feel so alone._

"_Just leave me alone, Kushina." Her voice was pleading. Saito didn't want to deal with this anymore. No matter how many times she was told to forget and move on, she couldn't when she was reminded of what happened whenever sh went to school._

"_Not a chance." He spit near her right hand before bending down and whispering in her ear. "I can't help but feel sorry for your little siblings. I mean, what did they ever do to deserve being killed by you?" Something sparked within her. "They were younger than you, and depended on you, and what did you do? You shot them dead." Her breathing quickened and her eyes turned hateful underneath her hair as it all rang true. "If I were you, I would have been brave enough to save them."_

_There was that same mixture of pity and anger in Hajime's eyes as he looked at her over his friend._

…

_Everything around her turned red._

_Using one hand, she fastened a vice-like grip on his throat and pulled his face back, leveling his dirty brown eyes with her sky blue ones while cutting off his oxygen supply. She watched, with hard eyes, as his face turned blue. He cowered in her grip, and Saito saw fear in his eyes as he gazed back at her._

_She whispered just loud enough for him to hear, "If you were me, you'd have pissed your little pants and just watched while they were tortured. If you were me you'd be dead by now, so don't come up to me with this selfless air and tell me how great you are." He started turning a light shade of purple, and she let him go. He began sputtering and gagging as his friend, who had been standing by the whole time, ran to him to try and help. When both boys looked up, they were met by Saito's fierce gaze. Her eyes were condescending, but there was also a mature hatred in them that stopped their blood cold._

_Her next words came out a hiss. "If you ever set foot near me again… I. Will. Break. You. Understand?" They nodded and jumped up, running to a nearby teacher who had been too preoccupied to notice anything. But she didn't care how much trouble she got in, she wouldn't apologize to them._

_The teacher took her home and yelled at the Amoras about how awfully they raised her. But she didn't care about that, either._

_She did start caring, however, when she saw the disappointed looks on her parents' faces. Then they grew expressionless as they didn't talk to her for the next two days, instead spending the time making various phone calls, accessing the internet, and occasionally going out briefly, claiming to be working._

_She didn't know what all that was for until they finally finished and addressed her._

"_Listen very carefully, Sai, because we can only say this once." Her mother's face held strong intent, so she immediately started listening. _

"_We've destroyed every last photo of how you really look. Your father has also replaced your original with that of your school records, so no one should really know what you look like or what your name is. To make sure no one can ever trace you back to _this_, I've replaced all of you recorded DNA with a stand-in's. This stand-in was a homeless girl the same age as you with brown hair and blue eyes."_

"_Was?" Sai's voice shook, both with fear and confusion. She had no idea where this was going._

"_She died yesterday from an illness. Her body was picked up by your father after it was reported by a jogger. Right now, it's being kept downstairs in preparation for tonight. Right now, I need you to change into the dirtiest clothes you have, and don't argue!" her mother snapped when Sai opened her mouth to speak._

_She tried to find comfort in her mother's face; but there was none, just cold determination._

_So Sai did as she was told. She donned an old white t-shirt with a bunch of ketchup, jelly, and other food stains. There were a few hole in is as well, which came from constant wrestling matches with the twins. Next she slipped on her ratty old jeans from last year. This had several scratches in several areas, though she couldn't remember why._

_When she was done and found some old socks and tennis shoes, she walked back down to where Amora Shari and Amora Kukai were waiting. They stood at the bottom of the staircase. They didn't look real, at least not to Sai; their faces were blank, and they wore casual clothing despite the tense air they had caused. Her mother was in a bright green sundress, while her father wore khaki shorts and a white polo. Just by looking at them, she knew it was the last time she would see them…_

_Kukai grabbed her shoulders and turned her towards him. "From now on… you are no longer our daughter." She sucked in a deep breath and her eyes grew wide. "Amora Sakuno and Amora Haruka will be your parents now. You-"_

"BUT WHY_?!" Sai burst out. She couldn't help it, they were treating her so coldly, and she had done her best to stay out of their way. It just wasn't fair. None of it was. "It's not fair!" She pouted and stamped her foot._

_Then her head jerked to the left. A tingling pain came from her right cheek and she realized, _He slapped me.

"_You're a big girl now; in fact, you're almost eight years old" Her mother's voice sounded strained. "You should realize that the time for fairness has come and gone. You should be grateful that we found a way for you to start over."_

_Sai sniffled, and tears cascaded down her cheeks._

_Kukai continued on, "You will refer to them as mom and dad once you get there. So as not to arouse suspicion, you'll stay out on the streets for about a week, and then go to this address." He handed her a note with the address of a nearby house. "These people are my brother and his wife. We've spoken with them, and they have agreed to go along with the plan as they owe me a few big favors._

"_You will appear at their house looking as if you are homeless. They'll take you in and adopt you from there. But remember this, for the first few months you have to act as though you've been out on the street for a long time." He became lost in thought, pondering the different variables and the things that could go wrong. "Oh, and find a way to burn that note after memorizing what's on it, then act as though you stumbled upon their house and that you're just looking for food."_

"_Wh-what about y-you guys?" The scariest thing happened then: they smiled. The smiles were full of remorse and acceptance of something Sai didn't understand._

"_We still have to get rid of the last bits of evidence… We'll bring your stand-in up and tie her to a chair. We'll sit next to her to appear more attached to each other… Then we'll burn the house, and us, down. Your mother and I don't have DNA samples they can compare you to, so you just have to worry about the connection to you new parents."_

_Silence. The house was completely still as she processed all of this. "N-n… NO! I ALREADY LOST GURREN AND TETSU, I DON'T WANT TO LOST YOU, TOO!" All of her anger was coming to the surface again. _How dare they even suggest leaving me like this?! They can't… they just can't!

_Sai felt her head jerk to the right as a familiar sensation encased her left cheek. It had been her mother to slap her this time._

_Shari's voice was a menacing whisper. "You'll do as you're told when your parents ask it of you."_

_Sai was feeling defeated, and there was an odd feeling of falling in her stomach. She began to grasp at straws. "B-but, then why can't I stay with you? I don't want to leave!" She stared up at her parents and visibly blanched._

_The air coming off of them was cold and uninviting. Their mouths were set in grim lines and their eyes held betrayal and anger. Her father answered, "Because we don't want you to. We pity you, which is why we aren't killing you with us and instead giving you a new life."_

_Shari finished her husband's thoughts. "When we look at you, all we can see is the girl who murdered her siblings. We realize you were forced to, but we're only human, and we just accept you anymore. We're fed up with housing you, and now we're dying for you. So shut the fuck up."_

…

_And so, Sai ended up wandering the streets. Her head was heavy as she walked, but she didn't think. Breathing hurt, and she could hear every rush of air as it entered and left her body, but her heart didn't hurt. It was more like it wasn't there anymore. She walked without a purpose, occasionally stumbling and falling down, gaining more cuts and scrapes. Eventually, all the dirt her clothes gathered, and all the blood stains mixed in with is, made her truly look the part of homeless. But, technically, she was._

_The sky was unusually complementary to her mood, being gray and raining nearly the entire time. Sai was forced to take shelter in small bus-stops and under store awnings. No one paid much attention to her since she was just a little girl, but it made everything worse. She felt invisible, like her existence could be wiped away if no one noticed her. It was this fear that diminished her pride and had her walking up to stores asking for food. Sadly, only few would oblige her, but she was grateful nonetheless._

_She eventually saw an old newspaper in one of these stores. It dated back to four days ago, and the cover story was on a house that burned to the ground. The parents intentionally kept their child there to burn with them so they could all die and go to heaven together. The report even covered the details behind their decision, which was the twin-murder that occurred a few months before._

_With that, Sai officially became the last family member alive, and she crawled behind a vacant dumpster area and cried until her eyes were dry and she was only making the noises._

…

"_Hey! Kick the can over here!" She awoke to a boy's voice screaming near where she had fallen asleep crying._

_An oversized tin went flying past the dumpster and collided with the brick wall on her left. She instinctively bent to pick it up and turned to give it back to the voices it had come from._

_A kid with raven-black hair and sickly skin looked at her behind large glasses. His pal had muddy brown hair, and was a bit on the chubby side. They both stared at her curiously, though there was also disgust in their features. It only intensified when she raised her hands to give them their can back._

"_Ew. Why don't you just keep it since you've already put your filth on it." Sai winced. She knew she was bad even without looking in a mirror._

"_Oh, okay then." Her voice was meager and she dropped the can on the tin object on the ground. She grabbed the newspaper from last night, intending to slip past the boys and walk away._

_But they wouldn't have it._

_The stick-thin guy held his arms out, blocking the passageway. "What's a hippie like you interested in the news for?" He quickly jumped forward and snatched it away from her before she had a chance to react._

"_Please, that's important to me." Sai pleaded with all her might. She had to have that newspaper as a reminder of all she had lost. It was the first thing that told her that she was truly alone. _

_The familiar anger began to simmer inside of her stomach._

"'_Far as I can tell, you don't need it. 'Sides, you ruined our tin can, so you might as well pay us back while you're here." He handed it to the brunette. "Rip it up."_

"_No!" Sai made a move to try and get it, but the black-head caught her and kept her from going near his buddy._

_Tsss. A small tear appeared in the paper. Tssssssssssss. The entire thing separated into two pieces. They continued to get smaller as the large hands holding them kept tearing until only small, illegible bits were all that remained._

_They started laughing while Sai hung her head and let her upper body go limp. She felt the heat building inside her and thought her fury would be quick to come, like a whip, just like it had with Kushina and Hajime._

_But she was wrong. When it burst to the surface, her hatred was cold, and she was able to analyze everything around her before she made a move._

_Sai noticed her head was sagging near his neck, so she turned and bit. Hard._

_A scream erupted from his mouth, and it was laced with fear and pain. However, Sai didn't let go, instead using it as encouragement to bite deeper. In a few seconds, she tasted the coppery taste of blood, and finally let go. The boy stumbled away from her and promptly landed on his ass after tripping over his own feet. The brunette looked from his bleeding pal on the ground to Sai, whose mouth was covered in blood. A few drops escaped and ran down her chin. She turned her cold eyes on him, and he scattered away like a bug._

_Then, she turned back to the bleeding black-head and shoved a foot on his chest after walking a few steps towards him. She was then partially standing on him._

"_Y-you made me bleed." He was terrified._

_Sai let a smirk grace her features. "'Far as I can tell, you don't need it, you leech." She didn't think it was possible, but his pale skin paled even more. "Now, Move It!" She removed her foot and he half-scrambled, half-crawled away._

_The confrontation left her feeling exhilarated. Thoughts of Gurren and Tetsu crawled into her mind, and she wished they could feel what she did. In fact, Sai wished others who had felt the same could feel what she did. She closed her eyes and tilted her face upwards. A smile crept onto her lips._

…

_After a couple more nights, Sai decided to through the rest of the plan, and trudged towards her new home._

…

_Her new mom and dad had welcomed her with distaste on evident on their faces, but it didn't matter to her anymore. Nothing that anyone thought about her mattered anymore. After all, she still had the rest of her life to live, and no one was going to tell her how to live it._

_**END OF FLASHBACK…**_

Ryuk chuckled a bit when Sai stopped talking. "That's quite some story."

Surprisingly, Satsujin addressed him, "Yes, most humans would have gone crazy by now; but Amora Sai found something to comfort her in all the chaos: the idea of revenge being necessary. While she won't use the Death Note for herself, even if that is the most likely course of action, she is satisfied whenever she grants this wish to others. Killing them becomes a part of Sai's ideals as she had to pay with heartbreak before she could become satisfied." He was right. That was how Sai felt about it all.

"Amazing, you barely talk to me at all." Ryuk muttered.

"Of course not. You're annoying, and I'm territorial. I wish you had laid the notebook out for another human other than Sai." Satsujin gazed back at the other shinigami with aggravated eyes.

"Not a chance. I'm glad someone so interesting could pick it up and entertain me." He chuckled again.

Sai sighed. "You two can go ahead and argue, but I'm going out to a few clubs tonight." She picked up her purse with the fake ID and headed out the door beneath her bedroom. She made sure her drunken parents didn't notice her leave.

Outside, she swung her hands back and forth as she walked, and two bickering shadows followed her invisibly.

* * *

**Whew, this was an emotional installment. Thanks for reading and feel free to drop a review ^^.**


	15. Chizu and Sai

**I am so glad ****I finally figured out how to put in line breaks ^^. Anyways, as per usual, I'd like to thank all of those who have added this story to their watch list and/or favorite list.**_  
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**I would also like to take the time to apologize about this being so late in terms of the three days it usually takes me to update :(. My family was on vacation, so I didn't find much time to write. Also, school is coming up, so it might be quite some time before each update then as well... Enough of that, now I'll respond to my reviews:  
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**Rinnu500: Thanks, and I'm working on fitting in some funny Satsu and Ryuk moments ;D.  
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**Guest: I'm not all that great at surprises, so your comment really made me happy ^^.  
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**Madi Lynn Thomas: I want to be happy about that since it means you think my chapter was good... but I don't think it's very nice to be glad about making someone cry, so I'll be sad along with you :'(.  
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**lie2me1moretime: Wow, that sounds like it could have become an interesting plot twist if I had put that o.o. Well, Sai's (unfortunately) not a vampire... but I can give you my new chapter to read ^^.  
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**Marcus Absent: Thank you very much for that advice. I totally get where you're coming from and I promise I will not let Sai turn into a Mary Sue... but it makes me wonder... what was your opinion of Light Yagami as the series continued on? Feel free to not answer that, but all the same o.o.  
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**uniquename200's NEW ACCOUNT: 1) Lol, I see where you would get that idea ^^... 2) Thank you for that compliment, and yeah, they were total bombastic assholes :(.  
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**nazebaka: Here's my next installment for you, new reviewer ^^. But, when I read your username aloud... it sounds like a certain something in Japanese to me.  
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_AMORA SAI'S RESIDENCE…_

"You don't need to take this disagreement any further, Ryuk." Satsujin angrily stated to the semi-serious shinigami next to him near Sai's bed.

Ryuk chuckled. "Hey, I'm just trying to have some fun with you."

"Would you two shut up?" Sai staggered to the bed in a haze. It was around three-o'-clock in the morning, so she was a bit tired from being out at a club all night.

She had to admit, it was a little entertaining when two men advanced to her solitary table in the back corner and sat down. Both men had flirtatious grins on their faces.

"_Now, I wonder why a beautiful thing like yourself is over here all alone?" The first man, who was lean and muscular, with dark hair shark eyes, had a silky voice._

"_I'm getting a drink." Sai answered bluntly and coldly._

_They both laughed, and the other man on the left placed his forearms on the round table. He wasn't as lean, but that was mostly due to his bigger muscles. He was obviously trying to show them off in an attempt to woo her. Chocolate brown hair fell to his shoulder, and his dull golden eyes stared into her own bright golden eyes. She had to admit she was attracted to guys with long hair, but only the ones it worked on. _His hair was meant to be short. _Right then, she had the urge to tug on it, break the glass in front of her, and use a shard to cut it for him. But she politely withheld._

"_My name's Ren," the guy on the right said, "and this is Noriko." He pointed his thumb at the long-haired brute._

_They stared expectantly at her. "My name's Aiko." Sai replied smoothly. "Why did you sit with me?"_

"_I don't know, maybe we like 'em dark." Her eyebrows twitched in irritation as Ren's rose in admiration._

"_Well, I'm sorry," she gave them a fake-remorseful smile, "but I don't find mop-heads and shark eyes very interesting. Excuse me." She stood up, ignoring their bewildered and hurt expressions._

_But then their faces morphed into anger, and Noriko reached out and gripped Sai's left shoulder. "What the hell's wrong with you? Think you can ju-"_

_His words were cut short as she quickly ducked to the floor. Placing one hand on the ground for stability, she powerfully kicked her left foot up into his chin. His entire head snapped back as his body stumbled backwards until Ren caught him._

_By then, a lot of people had gathered around the three, and they were staring at Sai in drunken wonderment._

I may have had a few drinks, but I will never let anyone embarrass me like that. _ She stared down at the two men who had fallen to the floor and smiled viciously. Then, she turned and left without another word._

She shook the memory out of her head and burrowed under the sheets as the two shinigamis continued their argument. It was about something stupid that she couldn't remember, so she tuned them out as sweet bliss rushed into her under the blankets.

…

There was a loud pounding on the door.

Sai was immediately jarred awake by the noise and vibration being emitted by it. Her fists clenched in irritation as she glared holes into the offending area of noise. Sighing, she got off the bed. Sleep hadn't been very comforting since she hadn't changed into pajamas before falling asleep. She glanced around the room and noticed that the two shinigamis were nowhere to be seen.

It was a miniscule matter, so she walked to her door and pulled it open, glaring at the girl she knew would be on the other side. Chizu smiled nervously up at her. _As usual, she's so energetic whenever I'm behind the door; but when I open it, she gets a little quiet._

"What is it?" She didn't bother hiding the irritation in her tone.

"W-well, it's Saturday, so I don't have school, and I finished all my homework for the weekend. I was hoping you would come with me to this amusement park?" Chizu tentatively held up two tickets to Momo's, a popular park in Kantou. "My friend gave them to me so we could go together, but she got sick at the last minute."

Sai contemplated the offer. Chizu was still a somewhat mystery to her. If she were to ever come in contact with the notebook, Sai wouldn't know how she would react or what would happen after that. She needed to find out more about this girl and she didn't have that many requests, so she could hand them off to Satsujin, wherever he was. There was also something tugging at the inside of her, wanting to go spend time with the girl. It almost made her sick, but she replied in a somewhat kind voice, "Sure, I'll be down in an hour."

Chizu beamed, and Sai smiled back as best she could.

Once the girl was downstairs, Sai looked around her room again, finding Satsujin and Ryuk both leaning against the windowsill.

"Where were you two?" she asked without really caring.

"Just stretching my wings." Ryuk replied nonchalantly.

"Surveillance." Satsujin's response came out in a monotone, making Sai shift her eyes towards him. The shinigami merely shrugged.

She sighed and turned towards her computer screen. "Ryuk, Satsujin."

"Hmm?" Ryuk laid down on her bed and stared at the back of her head. The other shinigami awaited her next words.

"I'm going to need you two… to start pulling the website notifications up on different computers. Multiple, different computers." A cruel and arrogant smile graced her lips. "It's time we officially start our little game with Near. Now, listen carefully to my next instructions." And she explained the plan as the two listened intently.

"Oh, God, more work." Ryuk complained loudly. "You don't pay me enough apples for this."

"Just shut up and let's go." Satsujin chastised Ryuk. He wasn't surprised at what she had planned, but he worried about how well it would work.

_NEAR'S HQ…_

"Gevanni," Near spoke to the man who had recently entered the machine-dominated room. "What have you been able to uncover?"

"Just little bits here and there. It seems to be more like a rumor among the young adults. Apparently, one has to follow a specific set of keys and links that will eventually lead to a webpage advertising his services." He walked over to a nearby metal table and sat down, turning to face Near. "I investigated further into the steps necessary in reaching this page… but, none of them were the same."

The white-haired man picked up a toy robot and analyzed its facial features. "That's interesting. Are you sure absolutely nothing matched up?"

"Uh… well, some of the instructions were the same coming from multiple accounts, but that only applied to a few of them." He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, uncomfortable with his lack of useful information.

A smirk lit up Near's face. "So that's it."

Rester, Gevanni, and Lidner were, once again, silent. "I'm sorry Near," Rester started, "but how is that relevant?"

"Because, it eliminates some of our options. For one, there's no possible way that we will be able to trick Herupa into coming here by accessing the page. He's obviously very capable with computers, so doing so would only hand over our location. However, we can monitor those accessing him. Gevanni," he put down the toy robot and started twirling his hair around one finger, "all of the data you collected varies in most aspects. Even so, there are a few variables that are the same throughout all cases. Am I correct in assuming this?"

"Yes."

"Then, considering the genius Herupa is, we can deduce that these rumors were started by him, and he made sure each varied in order to throw the less advanced detectives. Because only a handful of steps are similar, one can immediately assume that going from one person to another can change the condition of the original message. Since we have some of an idea of who we are dealing with, we also know this is not the case.

"Which ultimately means the program is set up in such a way that only these few keys are the only instructions which matter."

"And… what does that mean?" Lidner spoke up from her position at one of the monitors.

"It means we have a pattern to trace. Once we do that… we can set it up so we are lead directly to the area housing Herupa. From there, I'd say we'd be two steps closer to solving this case." Near stopped fiddling with hair and picked the toy robot back up. He began to move the arms and legs thoughtfully as he pondered Herupa's possible next move.

_While what I said is true, it is also possible that he has already thought of this. We ourselves could be lead on a goose-chase… but that doesn't seem to fit JH's personality. He seems to be more of the confrontational type. So, as it stands, he could lead us right to him, and we might assume that that is the fake lead. However, there's still the possibility that we are correct when we find him, and he uses the close proximity to take us out. While I don't believe Ryuk would have told him my real name, even if it was him who gave Herupa the notebook… I don't think Herupa will sit quietly by and just wait for my name. No, he might take action without using the notebook._

_This might be possible as his unflinching attitude leads me to believe our suspect must be quite capable of being violent. There's no telling what effect the notebook could have on someone like that…_

_Either way, _he brought the robot closer to him, so that his eyes were only an inch away, _the next move is mine to make, and the outcome could ride solely on the results._

_AMORA SAI…_

Ryuk and Satsujin had left a while ago, so Sai was left to her own thoughts. _Near must have some idea of how to trace the network by now. The question is… what will he do when he figures out what's happening? It's his turn to make a move, and whether I win or lose could rest completely on what comes out of it._

_NEAR'S HQ…_

"Commander Rester," the man looked up from staring at the floor in thought, "I want you to begin tracing these similarities exactly as they appear. Meaning, if they have a certain number of useless spaces in-between them, search it like that. Keep me updated with all developments." Near stood up and walked to a nearby computer chair. He sat with one leg pulled up to his body and one left dangling off the chair. In front of him was a box full of Lego people in various colors that were made out of material suited for writing on.

"I understand." He straightened from his slouching against the wall and walked to a monitor across from Lidner and began working immediately.

"Gevanni, Lidner, I want you two to bring me Japanese news reports for the past twenty years. Focus mainly on the Kantou region."

Lidner moved some of the blonde bangs out of her face. "Do you believe that Ryuk really is involved in this?"

The genius was silent as he began picking up tiny Lego people. On one black person, he wrote the initials J.H. in white. On another one, he wrote Ryuk. He turned the pieces so she and the others could see, and set both down on the table Gevanni had previously been sitting at. "I'm not 100% sure, but it is highly likely. After all, learning from another's mistake isn't that hard, and it seems as though JH is demonstrating this fact. If Ryuk is indeed involved, he might wish to drop the Death Note in around the same area and hope to find someone similar to Light Yagami… but don't let that worry you. We're all human after all, so he's bound to make some mistake." He quickly shifted his dark eyes to all of the blank and identified tiny men in front of him in turn. He then picked up four white pieces and continued to write L, G, Lid, and R on them. "And we'll be there to watch him fall when he does." Near placed the white ones so that they were facing the black pieces and stared silently at both sides.

_AMORA SAI RESIDENCE…_

Sai walked down the stairs in a golden sundress and her favorite black sandals. Chizu was at the bottom playing with the one braid in her hair. She was wearing a blue sundress and white high-heels. They didn't raise her height by much, though, so Sai was still much taller.

"Wait here." Sai walked through the kitchen to get to the living room where she knew her parents would be. Neither of them looked up when she entered. "I need to borrow one of the cars for a little while. Would you mind?"

They both just sat there and ignored her. Then, when they realized she wouldn't just go away like usual, they both looked at each other.

"Fine, you can use mine. The keys are on the counter in the kitchen." Her father said before turning back to the show he had been watching. Her mother buried her nose in a newspaper.

Sai was shocked for a second. She didn't think her father would be the one to lend her a car after last night. But, then she remembered he had been drunk. Which meant that he probably hadn't remembered what went on last night. She sighed in relief and went to retrieve the keys. Shortly after, she and Chizu were in the car on their way to Momo's.

It only took them twenty-six minutes to get there, and they both handed their tickets to the collector to get inside. After they passed the gates, Sai immediately felt ill. There was so much happiness and spoiled children around her she wanted to barf. Chizu fastened a tight grip on Sai's hand, and the raven-head looked into the tense little girl's face. _Looks like I'm not the only one who hates these sorts of atmospheres._

The blonde pasted a smile onto her face and stared up at Sai. "So… where do you want to go first?"

Sai thought about that for a moment. "What about the Ferris wheel?"

The other girl nodded enthusiastically and tugged Sai through the park until they reached the large, revolving wheel. The metal was painted red, and the seats were square enclosed spaces with glass windows. They got in line and boarded the seventh cubicle.

As the ride started, Chizu pressed her face to the glass and looked out. "It's all so sparkly and beautiful, especially when you can't hear the crowds. I wonder what it would look like at night." Her eyes glazed over and she sighed as she pictured it.

Sai stared at the back of the girl's head intensely. She had let Chizu stay on a whim, but she didn't know enough about her. That was the whole reason behind going with her on that trip. Chizu was almost always at her side when she could be, though she rarely ever talked about herself. It would be a good idea if Sai learned all she could with this opportunity.

So, instead of grimacing and ignoring her, she pressed her face up against the glass as well. Sai looks at what Chizu was pointing out, and actually agreed with her. "It is lovely when there's no noise to distract from the quality. Night would suit this place better…" It came out in a whisper, but Chizu still heard it.

"You know what it reminds me of?" she asked Sai. "It reminds me of freshness and roses. I just love smelling roses." Sai's left eye twitched and she quickly glanced at the girl. _Love smelling roses? _

Gurren's petite face momentarily flashed into her mind. _Why is this girl so similar? Why does she remind me so much of those two?_

She turned back to the window. It didn't matter to her, because Chizu would never be Gurren or Tetsu. She would never be able to fill their place.

"Hey… Sai?" Without looking, Sai nodded.

"Is it hard? You know… being smart?" She turned and looked at the other girl, but only saw her long dark hair instead of her face. _It's so entrancing, just like the darkness… It suits her so well._

Meanwhile, Sai thought about the question. "Yes and no. It's hard in all the work I have to do to earn a good grade and imprint the knowledge in my brain… but it's easy once it's been imprinted. Then, the information I want to recall surfaces without me having to work out how I got to that conclusion."

Sai thought a bit harder. "But that doesn't mean it's not a good idea to go through the steps again. Sometimes, we make mistakes, but we get the right answer. However, that mistake can become more evident if you have to elaborate and plan further. In essence, it could be the tipping point of a whole structure. Now, looking over this mistake depends on numerous factors: time, place, situation, etc. What it boils down to in the end is whether you're satisfied with a wobbly building, if you want to fix that point,… or if you're willing to risk it all and hope it doesn't get completely destroyed on the way down."

Chizu stared in awe at her. Sai, feeling her stare, turned her head as well so that they locked eyes. "What?"

The younger one shook her head. "It's nothing, just that you sounded so far off and like you were talking about something completely different and really important."

"Oh." was all Sai could manage.

They remained quiet for a while, just watching the world outside the cubicle move as the Ferris wheel continued it rotation. Eventually, they came to a stop and were let off after the first several passengers.

Chizu sneaked her hand back into Sai's, and she let her keep it there.

"So… what do you think of school?" Sai uncertainly asked her.

Chizu relaxed a bit and rolled her eyes. "Uggh… it's just so… boring. I hate listening to all of their boring lectures and doing all the work."

Sai smiled. "So do I. In fact, I was a complete high school failure up until we took the last test. That's when I actually started studying. From there on, it's just been trying to understand everything I've been given and proving to the college administrators that I won't slack off like in high school." She frowned as she remembered that unpleasant conversation.

But then there was a different feeling in her. She couldn't quite place it, but it made her feel restless for some reason. She decided to ignore it for the time being.

They went to a shooting booth next. Chizu won three consecutive prizes, all stuffed animals, which she proudly displayed to Sai.

"You should try it." The girl giggled out.

"Fine." With that, Sai picked up the toy gun and began firing… but only took down two out of the required three targets.

Chizu bit her lip nervously. "Don't worry… not everyone is great on their first try."

Sai's hand tightened on the gun as she grew more pissed, but she let out a breath and kept her cool. "No, it's alright. I'm not good with these sorts of things. I prefer more… physical confrontations." With that, Sai placed the toy gun back on the rack and turned on her heels, heading for another booth.

When they reached it, Chizu started biting her lip even harder. "A strength test?"

"Yep. Feel free to go first." Sai motioned for the girl to continue.

"O-okay…" After she paid for both her and Chizu, the young girl stepped up and grabbed the mallet next to the large meter. Raising it up high above her head using two hands, she waited for a moment, then brought it down with all her strength onto the big red plate in front of her feet. She managed to raise the bar, but only to the wimp category. Sai bit back laughter. She couldn't help it, she was only human after all, and she'd be damned if she took a kid showing her up without doing anything.

Striding over to take the mallet from a cutely embarrassed Chizu, she repeated the girl's routine before bring the mallet down with as much force as she could muster. She was pleased to see the bar rise until it hit the mark just before the top one.

Chizu and the person manning the booth both let out an appreciative whistle at the same time.

"Woman, whoever gets the honor of calling you their girlfriend better watch what he says." The booth-keeper, a tall Japanese man in his early twenties with shaggy black hair, winked at her.

"Yeah, Sai. I don't know whether I should feel safer or more worried around you now." Chizu gave Sai a toothy grin, and Sai couldn't help the responding smile.

"Thanks." She said hoarsely. She nodded at the guy and then grabbed Chizu's arm, heading for a wicked-looking roller coaster a little ways away.

She felt that pang of emotion again. It was stronger this time, and her hand clenched into a fist, but she relaxed it and continued on until they got to the line.

"I-I'm not so sure about this, Sai. I-I mean, we could crash and die if something were to happen to the tracks." Chizu stared imploringly at the older girl. Said girl simply smirked and continued to tug her as the line became shorter. "Come on, think rationally, Sai!" Chizu was starting to fidget with her clothes. Roller coasters absolutely scared the shit out of her.

"You'll never get over it if you don't face it first." Sai said aloud, predicting the girl's thoughts.

Then, it was their turn to get into the middle car, and Chizu was visibly shaking. She immediately snaked both arms around Sai's right one and squeezed her eyes shut.

Sai stared down at the girl who held her so forcefully. Only Gurren and Tetsu had ever gotten that close to her aside from Amora Kukai and Amora Shari before they lost it. The fact that this girl, Chizuru, clung so easily to her, regardless of how much Sai sneered and talked down to her, confused her to say the least. What amazed her even more was how easily she seemed to get along around Chizu. She couldn't deny that fact.

_It could become a problem if I become too close to her. I might let something slip… but that feeling, it makes me think I'll do much, much worse… just like I challenged dad last night instead of just being quiet._

Sai shook her head to clear it, and felt the metal safety bar come down over her legs. She was probably just feeling uneasy from being in that sort of environment. _It'll probably pass once I get out of here. Until then, I'll just have to deal._

The carts started moving forward, and Chizu dug her nails into Sai's arm. They began to slowly ascend. After nearly a minute, the carts made a sharp turn downward, and Chizu was screaming bloody murder all the way down. Sai felt exhilarated, and some of that entered her own screams. It continued on like this until they finally came to a stop ten minutes and several steep drops later.

There was a small smile on Sai's face, and she turned to the spazzing leaf that was Chizu. Chizu's blue eyes looked up into Sai's golden ones, and Sai froze.

The fourteen-year-old's eyes were scrunched up in terror, and her mouth was partially open. Her eyebrows pulled together to make her facial expression seem pleading. This wouldn't have bothered the older girl, but they were under a red light in the tunnel exit, and Chizu's hair was almost entirely behind her face. It made it all too easy for Sai to see Tetsu staring at her as she pointed a gun at his face.

She turned away, feeling pissed and ashamed of the surfaced memory. _What the fuck am I doing anyways? Since when did I let some kid lead me around like this?_ Her usual sour mood returned, and Sai welcomed it with open arms. She would rather feel something familiar then something she hadn't felt in over a decade, even if it was small.

"Shit, that was so flipping scary!" Chizu said in a frightened voice.

There was a slight pause as they exited the tunnel, and then Sai broke it. "Where to next?"

"U-um, what about the fun-house?" the little girl said, her voice still weak. She hadn't noticed Sai's tense air, so she continued on like usual for a person who had just gotten off a roller coaster.

They walked towards a large colorful building that had a huge smiling clown-face on top of it. It was quite a ways away, so they had time to just walk and talk, Sai learning more about her.

"What are you good at?"

Chizu thought for a moment. "Learning a different language comes easy to me, but I'm best at drawing. I really like abstract art, but I also enjoy simple ones that hold messages."

"What kinds of things do you like?"

"I like key chains."

"Key chains?" Sai's brows furrowed in curiosity.

"Yeah." She pulled out a key ring that had numerous small figures attached to it. Sai noticed how the majority of them held a skull theme. "They're like little memory treasures. See this one?" She pointed to a gothic house. "It symbolizes when I started moving around after my dad died. That's why there are different styles on it." When Sai looked closer, she saw she was right. The house was gothic, but the windows were Victorian, and the door was Grecian. "And this one here," she grabbed a gold and black yin-and-yang symbol, "symbolizes when I met you." She smiled widely while Sai's eyes widened.

"Why yin-and-yang?"

"Because, I've noticed how you are with others. You look at them as though they're all there to hurt you in some way, and like you'll do anything to stop them from doing it." Sai's left eye twitched again. "But around me, I don't know. You look like I remind you of something whenever I'm near you. You also seem to tolerate me more."

"Why gold and black instead of the traditional white and black?"

"Because it would be an insult to your best feature and to who you are if I simply labeled your good side white. It's so rare to see that the color should be rare, too. So, I chose the color of your eyes that show the most emotion." Chizu suddenly looked embarrassed at saying all of that. "Sorry."

Sai blinked a couple of times before returning to her usual stare. "It's… alright." she finally said.

The girl immediately perked up.

"But why so many skulls?"

"Oh, these?" Chizu raised one of them. "I-it's kinda weird… I think they represent love and the want of it."

"How so?" Sai asked, immediately intrigued.

"Well, you know how death slowly deteriorates the body until only the bones are left before they also just turn to dust? During that time, the skull is empty, but it makes me think it should be filled because it belongs to a human. And love is one of the things that can usually fill the heads of teenagers and, well, almost everyone in general. That's how it represents love. But, being empty, the skull can only wish for such a thing, so it's only an empty desire."

Sai was a little impressed. "So, did you make those all yourself, or…?"

"No, I either bought them at a convenience store or placed a special order for them online. I went online for things like the house and your symbol."

Sai nodded. She noticed another house on her key ring that was completely black and golden. _I guess that represents when she came to live with me._

They made it to the fun house entrance and entered silently. It was a large maze, so they were left to wander around for a long time and stare at various warped reflections.

They walked for a while in the slight darkness without saying anything. In one of the mirrors, Chizu's form was heightened, while Sai's was shortened and widened. She smirked a bit at that one, turning this way and that to get a better view of all the angles. Chizu simply giggled next to her.

"Hey, look!" she pointed out once they had gotten away from the mirror they were previously admiring. "It's a split."

Sai stared at the two corridors in front of them. It was hard to see where either of them led.

"Cool." Chizu interrupted the brief silence. "I'll take the left one." She immediately started towards it and disappeared into the dark hallway.

Sai went towards the right and continued on slowly. It was really quiet to her. Ever since she had gotten the notebook and Chizu had come to stay, moments like those were hard to come by.

She continued down along with all of her reflections, just thinking. _Chizu seems like a contradiction. She's usually acting happy, but I can tell that her mind is plagued with dark thoughts. It's as though her soul has touched far without being tainted by it. But… if she's just acting… if that were the case, what would she serve to gain? No, I don't think this is an act. But, I also don't trust her enough to think she wouldn't leak any information if she found out who I was. In any case, things might start heating up soon, so I'll have to wait and secede whether it would be a good idea or not to keep her close…_

Sai had been thinking so deeply that she was caught off guard when she heard a loud _bang!_ ahead of her, followed the tinkling of glass falling and footsteps running away. _Probably an idiot trying to pull a prank. _ She found she was right when she heard booming laughter coming from somewhere at the end of the maze.

Pissed that her peace and quiet had been ruined, she sucked her teeth in annoyance and started walking towards where she had heard the mirror shatter. Turning the corner, Sai stared and the broken reflection with a small sense of foreboding in her. It shouldn't have mattered, but it did for some reason.

The glass had been shattered in such a way that two large cracks came from either side. They met just below her head and turned into a single crack that went down her middle. It seemed to align itself perfectly with her childhood scar. Though it was hidden under the sundress, she knew she was right. She seemed to stare at it for hours as she tried to piece together what she was thinking.

In the end, she simply gave up and made her way to the exit.

Chizu was waiting for her there, and they left to go on other rides and try out different booths well into the night. But Sai couldn't get the image of the cracked mirror, or her reflection in it, out of her head.

…

"That was fun." Chizu said with a huge smile glued to her face.

Sai merely nodded as they approached her father's car.

A shadow moved near it. A very human-like shadow.

Sai sprung forward and wrapped an iron claw around the nearest arm she could find. She then twisted it around the guy's neck while pinning his other hand behind his back as he grunted in pain. _It would be so easy to push and break him like this_, she mused to herself.

"Ow!... W-wait! It's not what it looks like." He said in a pained voice.

"Oh yeah?" she hissed into his ear. "Then, please, enlighten me." Her voice came out sarcastic. Chizu was watching silently from somewhere on the sidelines.

"I-I was just taking out the trash since I work here."

"I don't see a trash bin near our car."

"I saw you coming and I thought I'd talk to you for a while."

Sai let him go and he staggered a few steps away from her. He turned and she and Chizu both blinked in recognition.

The little girl was the one to voice her thoughts aloud. "You're the guy from that strength test."

"Yes, I am." He put his right hand on his left shoulder and started rotating the left arm slowly, flexing it. "And I can see that I was right about you." He gave Sai a pointed look. Sai returned it with a look that said she wanted to tear him apart. "If looks could kill." he muttered under his breath.

Now that he was closer than he was at the booth, she gave him a better examination. She noticed he had large, clear blue eyes despite being Japanese, and he had a pert nose along with a devilish mouth. _A lazy-ass playboy. He probably spends his time doing what he wants and barely gives girls who don't interest him a second glance._

"I never got your name." Sai stated bluntly.

He looked up from the ground and flexing. "Yeah, it was kind of hard to give it being pinned and all."

"Drop the attitude." She glared fiercely at him.

"All right," he raised his hands in surrender, "the name's Kiko Sosuke."

_Kiko Sosuke… _ "What did you want?"

"Huh? Oh, I just wanted to talk to you… 'cause, you know, not a lot of women score so high, yet look so pretty." Sai winced. She didn't like her beauty being brought into it. "I can see why other guys would be too intimidated to ask you out… but I thought I'd give it a shot myself." He chuckled self-mockingly. "But I can see that was pro-."

Sai had opened her mouth to reject him as coolly as possible when sense slapped her in the face and she interrupted him asking, "Do you have a strong stomach for alcohol?"

Chizu's mouth audibly dropped open while Sosuke blinked at her. He regained his voice after a while and replied, "Ye-yeah… uh, why?"

"Because I need a drinking buddy." It wasn't a lie. Truthfully, the events of last night when she had gone out seemed to be a common occurrence wherever she went. She needed someone, someone she could at least easily pin, to go with her if she wanted freaks to back off. This guy was offering, and Sai figured she could just ditch him when the time came. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-two years. You?"

"Eighteen, though I use a fake ID to get in."

He looked at her impressively. "You really are interesting."

She gave him a shark-smile. "You're not the first to think that… Can I have your number?" The question came out in an awkward voice.

He laughed loudly, offending Sai. He could see that and tried to stop. "Sorry, it's just that you can so tell this is your first time doing this." He chuckled a little longer before straightening out. It was a good thing, too, since she was on the edge of knocking him out and screwing the whole plan. He took out a piece of paper and a pen to write his number on. After he finished, Sosuke walked closer to Sai and handed the paper over. It had his number and address on it. "Feel free to swing by if you ever want to. I'll more or less be there." He gazed at Sai in an amused way.

"Alright. Let's go Chizu." Sai said to the girl who had been watching the whole interaction with an open mouth. "If you don't close that, flies will nest in there." She immediately shut her mouth and got into the car.

Sai turned to Sosuke. "See ya." Then, she got in the car as well. They drove off in silence.

Of course, Chizu was the first to break it. "I never thought you would do something like that." her voice held wonder.

"I'm just trying to keep my structure from tipping over. The more I have under it to support it, the less likely the tipping point will collapse as easily."

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**Thanks for reading again. Please review and tell me what you think about it, and pay attention to some of the small things, because I'm kind of big on symbolism ;).**

**Oh yeah, and a friend of mine drew a picture of what Sai might look like ^^. I'll post a link in my profile for that.  
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	16. Certain People

**Hey guys ^^. Yeah, I'm really caught up in schoolwork right now, so I'm sorry about taking... WEEKS... to update -_-... I'm really sorry about that... Anyways, I just wanted to say thanks to all of those who have read my story this far, reviewed, added as a favorite, added as an alert item, and those who added me to one or both of those lists :D. I'm glad this is so accepted and liked since it's my first fan-fic. Now, responding to the reviews:**

**Rinnu500: x'D Gevanni, stalking little girls... that would make for a good pedo fan-fic! And thanks, the first week of school is stressful... it's even worse when you have to do a science project for a grade *groans internally*  
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**lie2me1moretime: Yep, those keychains are definitely cool and important ^^. And, being like Light and all, Amora Sai needed her own monologue... that and sometimes people just need to think aloud about really important things ;D.  
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**uniquename200's NEW ACCOUNT: That's awesome... And reading that first part made me LOL too xD. It's always great to be a badass sometimes o3o...  
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**Madi Lynn Thomas: ... Yuuri theme, eh? I had absolutely no idea that was in there o.o... But now that you mention it... Holy Shiz, you're so right :D. I'm not making any promises about developing it, but it might have given me a good idea o3o, might have.  
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**Marcus Absent: Thank you, your reviews are always helpful and fun to read, and a special thanks for answering my question ^^.  
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**Josef Sieffen: Hi, and thanks, really. Sometimes I look at this fan-fiction, and I think it isn't really going that great. But then you guys say that it is awesome and tell me how I'm good at keeping characters the way they were supposed to be. xD, Another person detecting the yuuri theme, even when I hadn't. Thanks a lot :D. Oh, and I'm part of the female gender, to answer your curiosity.  
**

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'_**TWO-AND-A-HALF WEEKS LATER'**_

_NEAR'S HQ…_

Gevanni walked in carrying yet another stack of newspapers along with Lidner. Rester was at a monitor both tracing the request patterns and checking Japanese news through internet sources. They worked quietly, the two at the metal table shifting through the piles and narrowing down the entries while the one at the monitor silently pounded away at the keyboards.

After about two hours of this, Lidner and Gevanni had finally finished organizing all of the papers, and proceeded to hand over all relevant news to Near. He was lying on his stomach with his feet in the air as he played with the numerous toys surrounding him.

"Near," Lidner spoke monotonously as she and Gevanni set the stacks on the floor next to the genius, "we have finished organizing the data. Only cases which involve severe emotional damage to one or more surviving persons are still there."

"Thank you… Please keep the other stacks away in case we have further need of them." She did as she was told and then returned to the room minutes later. The newspapers were being kept in a safe place, though she doubted they would need them later on… Still, with the Kira case, everyone's eyes had been opened to the possibility of even the most smallest and insignificant object being important.

"Gevanni, I would like you to pull up JH's more recent killings and read them aloud."

"Yes, sir." He nodded and sat down near Rester, who had large headphones over his head in order to listen to some online reports as he took notes. Gevanni began typing and pulled up several police reports from the past few weeks. "…. Junsuina Yami: 17 years old, born a Capricorn… died of food poisoning by an unknown source… but a bottle matching the toxin's description appeared just eight miles away from the crime. It held the fingerprints of a man named Liyo Kakishi, though he vehemently denied even knowing of the girl's existence and was later released due to lack of evidence… Yuka Neka: 27 years old… shot down after exiting her apartment at 1 pm in the morning 13 days ago… A gun was found next to her body, also containing fingerprints of a random person… Gerald Simpson, scheduled to be released in a month due to lack of evidence, but still being held considering the cause of death and the fingerprints on the gun… Barken Liplen: 36 years old… his stomach was cut open and some of his internal organs removed." His eye twitched at that. Near looked up from his stacks and examined the screens as he listened to Gevanni continue. Lidner was also listening intently, though she was also taking note of the different articles in front of her. Rester was still unable to hear them. "Once again, the weapon was located near the scene with fingerprints on the hilt, though the man responsible has a record, so he is less likely to escape the charges… The same pattern follows throughout the rest of these cases as well. Not one of them differs in any aspects other than the individuals and the causes of death."

"Hmm…." Near looked back down and began reading for a while. Then he looked up at Gevanni again and asked, "And how have the police forces responded to all of the evidence being used."

A little searching later, Gevanni replied, "They haven't expressly gone against us and your suspicions, but there are some who are receiving secret orders to investigate certain leads and there are some underground suspicions that what we are dealing with is a group of criminals running under one person who claims ownership of the notebook, explaining all these fake leads along with the evidence. Because it was gradual at first and only just starting becoming more obvious… the police are starting to sway more towards their own theories, just like you said Near."

"Huh, figures. It's only been around two months since that broadcast, and already we're losing support. Well, while I can't say it doesn't matter, it is just a minor setback. We will find a way to catch him even if it dwindles down to only the four of us again." He started curling a group of white hairs around his fingers. In truth, he was prepared for something like this to happen from the start. People were just too easily swayed by fear and other emotions. If not, then why would L have had to weed out all of the unreliable investigators on his own team?

Carefully aligning all of the material in front of him, Near placed a hand at the very top, moving the other to the side, and shifted it so that he was pushing all of the papers to the along while leaving some behind, until the stack was all along the floor, playing card style. He gazed down at the entries, focusing on each of them in turn._ Somewhere in this collection of words is our suspect, of that I am quite certain… Bank Shooting Kills Multiple Children… Bus Jacking Results in Deadly Crash… Amora Residence Attack Wounds Family… Drunken Drivers Crash into School Bus…_

_AMORA SAI'S RESIDENCE…_

Sai sat down on her bed. She felt tired from spending the day with Chizu and her requests.

Chizu was finally on summer break, and Sai had had no classes to go to, so Chizu immediately jumped on the opportunity to go with her somewhere. They ended up seeing a movie about some stupid singing squirrels. Sai had wanted to take a knife and slash the screen when she first heard their squeaky little voices, but she saw that Chizu was thoroughly enjoying them and their atrocious antics.

Sighing, she laid back and spread her arms out around her, just staring at the ceiling. It hadn't been too long, but Sai was starting to get impatient, she wanted to start this battle so she could end it. If any _successors_ came after her, she would just say fuck it and re-enact the plan she already had lined up.

She turned on her side and stared at her computer desk with all of the clutter on top of it. _I wonder what Light would think of someone like me?_ She chuckled to herself. According to Ryuk, he was an over-obsessed neat-freak. She would love nothing more than to stuff some garbage onto someone like that and see how they reacted. She laughed harder at the possible reaction.

Sitting up, Sai crossed the room and plopped down on the chair in front of it. She gazed at all of the papers that had begun to pile up higher. They were returned research assignments from the university, but she was too busy to organize and put them away. Besides, she liked looking at well-graded papers. Her pride boosted every time she did.

The best main difference between college and high school had to be that the teachers didn't give a fuck whether or not you turned your papers in. They didn't bark down your throat if you didn't score that high… they just plain didn't give a shit. You either did what you were supposed to or you weren't worth their time.

Sai stared down at her papers a little more, suddenly lost in thought over all of the people she had ever appeared before as Jaakuna Herupa. Some had been spoiled, some petty orphans. Some had been big enough to do the job themselves, but too afraid of what would happen. The one thing they all had in common was that they knew what they were doing, and they were willing to sacrifice their lives for exactly that reason.

She was deep in thought now, just remembering and analyzing all of them. In fact, she was so deep in thought that she didn't even register Satsujin coming in through the window. He walked up to her from behind and held up one hand carrying an object over her head. Releasing it, he let it fall and startle her back into the real world.

Sai blinked and sucked in a small breath when she felt something touch her forehead and fall in front of her. At that point, she blinked even harder, picking up the beautiful tulip in front of her and examining it.

"Though you don't share such information with other humans, you have a certain infatuation with such flowers, correct?" His red eyes stared at the back of her head.

Her eyes were wide in curiosity as she stared at it, Sai dully nodded. The flower was a pretty shade between orange and red, opening just a bit at the tip. She sniffed it and was glad to be met with the familiar earthy smell that it emitted. She turned around and looked at the large shinigami now in front of her. "Why would you give me something like this?"

He was silent as he contemplated her question. "I saw it on the ground and decided to give it to you considering your personal preferences… I don't have much else of a reason."

"Oh, well… thanks Satsujin." She looked at the ground as she said it monotonously.

"Don't bother. Giving gratitude doesn't suit you unless you truly like the person who will receive it. I take no offense at this, but it does confuse as to why you help others and refuse to kill those who have hurt you the most." Satsujin stared at her imploringly.

"I would love nothing more than to kill them, but I won't. They have too close a connection to me… and I'd rather they died by my own hands than through the devices of a shinigami."

"I see. That would make the most sense considering who you are." He paused for a moment. "Do you believe that Gurren and Tetsu would wish to take revenge on you?" There was a very long silence, and understandably so. Satsujin knew it would be considered a low blow in the human world, but he was curious all the same. Sai wouldn't take too much offense at it either knowing what he was.

"I… don't know. My side that is not self-centered wishes to say yes… but the part that knows them prefers the negative answer. Whether they hate me or not is up to them, but if they were alive again, and wished for my death, I would not deny them it. But, Gurren and Tetsu are neither here nor alive, so I guess I will never know, now will I?"

"I suppose not. But following your siblings leads me to believe they would not wish to kill you. Both realized and understood what was happening, so I doubt they would hold it against you."

Sai lifted her gaze to his own neutral one, not believing a word she heard, and found the closest thing to comfort she could understand. They sat there, just staring at each other, Sai spinning the tulip in her hand, and Satsujin just letting his long limbs hang in front of him.

The shinigami opened his mouth to form a question. "You will always b-."

"I'm back from finishing that last set." Ryuk boomed and suddenly swooped into the room holding a rather large apple. "And would you just look at this treasure I picked up along the way?"

Satsujin's eyes twitched in fury, and he stalked over to the other shinigami as Ryuk tilted his head back and held the apple above his open mouth. As he released his grip and let it go, Satsujin grabbed it quickly and stuffed it into his own mouth before Ryuk could even try to protest.

"He-hey, what the hell was that for?" Ryuk stared in an annoyed manner at the figure across from him.

"Those who choose to pop in at wrong times should deal with losing something precious." Very nasty and cold red eyes turned on Ryuk.

The clown-faced shinigami merely chuckled in amusement and stared at the flower in Sai's hands. Sai was already past caring, so she put it down and continued what she was doing before. Then, an idea popped into her head.

"…Ryuk?"

"Yes?"

"What about dead people?"

"… I don't know, what about dead people?" He moved to float over her bed as he waited for the answer.

"You said you couldn't tell me the name of any human… but what about the name of a dead person?"

He thought that one over for a few seconds. "I… don't see what laws it would break. What's got you interested in the dead all of a sudden? Is it Shakespeare? 'Cause I can tell you that name is phony; he made it up to cover up the fact that he had this horr-."

"Never mind Shakespeare." Sai all but snapped to stop his rant. He laughed a bit at her impatience and then fell silent. "I want the names of a few other humans, the real names."

"Depends, how many apples you willing to give me?"

"Depends, how many apples can I stuff into your mouth when I want you to shut up later on?" He guffawed at this.

Satsujin cut in, his face still a bit sour, but his voice neutral again, "I have somewhere I need to go." At their slightly questioning looks, with Sai leaning forward a bit and Ryuk still lazily floating above the mattress, he simply said, "Surveillance."

Sighing, Sai went back to looking at Ryuk. The shinigami gazed back at her and asked, "So… what were those names you wanted?"

_NEAR'S HQ…_

Slowly and silently, Satsujin's wings brought him level with the ground inside of Near's HQ. Being a shinigami, he merely had to phase through the man-made obstacles, so he would come regularly to this area, checking up on Near's progress. He may not have been able to tell Sai of what was happening, but he could at least try to hint at it.

The white-haired figure sitting on the ground in a weird way in front of Satsujin spoke up. "Lidner, about those old newspapers, bring them back out. And Commander Rester, pull up the files that you previously discarded."

The two looked at Near as though he wasn't undoing all the progress they had accomplished. "We'll be right on it, Near." Lidner left to relocate the safe and all of its contents. A few short minutes later, she returned with a large pile of newspapers, which would only be the first handful of many. Setting them neatly on the floor next to the genius, she quickly went to go get the rest.

"Near, if you don't mind me asking, what are you hoping to accomplish by bringing out all the articles that we've already sorted through and discarded?"

"Hmm?... Well, nothing really I suppose… I just don't like leaving any blindspots is all. Gevanni and Lidner were only scanning them to check for the specifications I informed them of… However, should some piece of information within the papers that are being examined right now arise, there might be some reference to it in these older sections. The only reason they were put away in the first place was to organize the evidence. Of course, only I will fully determine the usefulness behind them, the rest of you will need to keep searching for the more obvious clues. When Gevanni gets back from listening into things on the streets, he can help you sort through the rest of your information, Commander."

"… I see. But are we even sure that it could have been reported in the news? What if it was an incident that took place off-film and stayed that way so no one would know better?"

"That would be interesting wouldn't it? If that were the case, we would have to look closer into all individuals within the Kantou region perimeter. Until my current suspicions are denied, we will save that strategy for later."

Rester nodded and returned to his work at the monitor in the lower left area. Near continued to read thoroughly through each section on each page.

A moment of ruffling papers and typed letters passed until Rester suddenly gave a sharp intake of breath and started speaking hurriedly to Near. The urgency of his tone made the still shinigami listen much more intently. "Near, I've been able to track the Herupa signal."

He looked up from his own work and started twisting several strands of hair around his fingers. In a bored voice, he said, "And what were the results?"

"It seems as though… it's spread out. Almost as though it's in a circle. Whatever it is, they were used to log in and accept notifications almost at the same time. So that could mean that he is within the area, using the shinigamis to move quickly from one area to another."

"Yes, but I don't want to trust that information just yet."

"What do you mean by that?" The man seemed surprised at the idea of not trying to investigate into the new lead.

"While it is true that Herupa could have hitched a ride to all those networks using the shinigami, it is still improbable that he would purposefully create a perimeter around the area where he lived, or ever return to that piece of technology again. Keep this info at hand in case of further need upon the case's development, but don't spend too much time worrying about it at the moment." Rester took in a breath to say something else, but dropped it and did as he was told.

Near was once again still as he kept reading, while Satsujin was relieved that there were still too many leads for them to narrow down on Amora Sai just yet. Even so, he needed to warn of how close these people were to uncovering something incriminating, as Satsujin had seen the very article in the newspaper depicting Sai's history. He might have taken it if the figure standing before it wasn't one of the world's sharpest humans.

No matter the reason, he unfurled his wings, and set off back to Amora Sai.

_AMORA SAI RESIDENCE…_

The skull-like shinigami approached the lighted window, then opened it and slipped inside. Sai was in her bed under the covers, though he could tell she hadn't been asleep as she turned wide golden eyes on him.

"Your surveillance finished for now?" she asked him skeptically.

"Yes… I thought I'd get back to what we were talking about before with your little siblings. Seeing as a certain bafoon isn't here to interrupt this time, it'll be easier."

Her eyes narrowed. It was obvious that she hated having to constantly go over her past, even if it was only a faint reference. "Yeah, what about them?"

"If there had ever been a point where your address could have shown up in something like a newspaper, would you think that that lead directly to their death?"

She sat up, in thought. At last, the girl simply shrugged. "Maybe it would have, maybe it wouldn't have. What are you trying to get at?" Cold eyes bored into Satsujin's own as she analyzed his question.

"What I'm saying is that maybe you should have tried to be more careful since then. With your parents rank in the policing department, they should have been quite aware of the fact that something bad could happen to them with just… one… address." He stretched out the words in the hopes of making her see what he was saying.

Sai herself felt like hurting his ass for even saying something like that, but she knew that he was a shinigami who didn't care for things like that. "So… you're saying that if they were more careful, they could have avoided the destruction of our family?" The words sounded hollow in her mouth, but then… it clicked. A coldness spread through her as her suspicion was knocked around in her head for a bit. "If all it takes is one little thing… Maybe they should have thrown down something fake… or something to shake people up." A deeply cruel smile slowly spread across her face. "Looks like now would be the _perfect_ time to use _those._"

Getting up off her chair, she approached the door and made her way to the kitchen, where Ryuk was piling his favorite meal into his mouth. It didn't take long for him to notice her standing next to him silently, with a face like stone.

He gulped. "I got it, there's another set to take care of. You just go to that park with Chizu and have the apples ready when I get back, and I'll hurry up and go."

"No. I'm coming with you this time. I need my cloak and mask." She held out her hands to him.

"Oh… well, suit yourself then." He handed both items over. "I'm assuming something's come up then?"

"Yes… something has. I need you to take me to the requests tonight. You'll see when we get there what I'm going to do, but I only need some people if I'm going to make it have a much greater impact."

"Oh, I see then." He didn't actually, but he played along anyways since it would be more entertaining. "What are you gonna do? Something big again?" His eyes turned excited as he thought through the possibilities.

"I'm giving something to take something." Her monotonous voice penetrated his head easily, and he grew even more confused.

"Don't worry about it." She glanced at the last apple in front of him. "Do you think you could hurry before I take away a dozen apples from your payment?"

He was shocked into silence. "I can go get some of my own anytime that I want to." he finally countered.

She got up into his face as much she could. "Good, then you can try doing that and missing out on all the fun when I toss your notebook to the dumbest person I can find." Her tone was filled with mock seriousness, and a grin was taking up some of her face. Sai looked up at him expectantly.

He sighed. "Fine, I'll leave it here for now." His eyes cut to the right of him. "I'm guessing Satsu isn't coming?"

"No, there isn't any need for him to."

"Then I guess we can go now." Ryuk and Sai walked outside and took off after she wrote a note to Chizu saying something important had come up.

_NEAR'S HQ, THE NEXT DAY…_

Gevanni walked up to the boy playing darts in the middle of the room. Near's aim was always just slightly off, so he never really hit the target. "Um, Near?"

Dark grey eyes moved from the target to the man on his left. "Yes, what is it?"

"There have been four new deaths since last night. All fall under suspicion of being JH related." He swallowed loudly before continuing. The others were sitting at the table shifting through all of the evidence they had acquired. "Apparently, the first two were following the patterns of all the others."

"… But, the other two?" Near prompted the man.

"But the other two… they had names written across them in blood… the victim's blood." The white-haired man dropped the dart onto the side and listened closely to Gevanni's next words.

"The names that were on the bodies were 'Mihael Keehl' and 'Mail Jeevas'."

The room dropped into a dead silence as the task force members each froze up in shock and incredulity.

The moment was broken when Lidner stood from the table and looked at the Near's back. "But… that's impossible… Their names weren't known by anyone who would have taken the information outside. How could someone like JH have known?" Her voice raised a few octaves at the unpleasant surprise and blatant disrespect of the dead.

"Calm down a bit Lidner," Rester began, "we're dealing with someone very advanced. While I don't think they could have gotten in such a short amount of time, I can't say that quite for certain." He had also risen out of his chair, and stared at the pajama shirt with interest like the other two did.

Near himself had been shocked to hear those two names. But a theory formed in his mind immediately. "He wants something to happen." A frown tugged at his face and his eyes grew more impassive as he said this.

"Something to happen…? Like what?"

"He wants to give something to take something else of equal value." Before any of the three could ask what exactly Near thought JH had given them, he continued on. "Matt and Mello's real names were unknown to the public, and not accessible to any personnel besides myself, this task force, and a few other selected individuals. Since none of them fit this investigation, we can rule out the possibility of them sending us such an obvious hint as to who they are… No, this guy's just trying to give us some information on himself."

Gevanni spoke up. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, he's telling us that Ryuk is indeed involved in these murders once again. While one might think that it would only take one random shinigami to look down and see whose name matched whose face, there would be no point in writing their names on the bodies then. Knowing this, it would be better to not do anything so flashy at all, unless he was trying to prove something. Since Mello and Matt were both active helpers in catching Kira during the original case, and because they were dead, it would be best to use their names to get the point across better." His usual monotone sounded greatly annoyed, though he kept it under control with little effort.

"In any case…" he picked the dart back up from the floor, not betraying his own impatience towards this recent development. "We need to be on a much higher alert. We simply cannot afford to let anything slip by us anymore. With the fact that this person is indeed in contact with Ryuk, we can also be sure that the shinigami has told JH of our little adventures with Kira. Because of this knowledge, it is easier for him to dodge some of the traps we might lay out.

"It'll be like fighting a revived Yagami Light." He threw the dart in his hands… and missed the target once more.

* * *

**Thanks for reading ^^. Be sure to support my work by reviewing :D!**


	17. Anger

__**Hi again ^^. Wow, it seems like everyone is ****coming down with the cold (I am as well -_-...). Anyways, thanks for waiting patiently for me to update :). So here is the next installment of this series. Oh, and before I respond to the reviews, would anyone like me to draw some of the keychains? Basically what they look like? Or if you want to, you can draw them, too, and let me know what it looks like ^^. Now, responding:**

**Cooljoe64: Thanks for your support, it really helps :D.  
**

**Josef Sieffan: O.O... wow, thank you, a lot, reviewing my latest chapter and then going back to review an earlier one. ****You even went to my other stories and reviewed. ****(As for your question, I have seen that anime. Now, have you seen Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl), all three seasons of it?) That's really awesome of you, and I wouldn't mind having you as my number 1 fan.  
**

**Rinnu500: Lol, yeah ^^, thank you a lot. And Pedovanni ... better lock your doors tonight ;). And Satsu has his moments.  
**

**lie2me1moretime: Yep, it was disrespectful, and it was supposed to be. Being cruel and hard is part of her owning the notebook, and thanks for your support :). (P.S. I like Near's spotlight, too. For some reason, it's easier to write his character.)  
**

**TheRabbit3: You and me both wonder o.o... Guess we'll have to wait and see, right xD? And thanks, it's awesome to get such great reviews from people :D.  
**

* * *

_AS RESIDENCE…_

Cackling filled the background as Ryuk ate apples down in the kitchen. Amora Sai sat at the desk, typing up a new report. Satsujin merely stood in the corner, gazing at her back.

"So," she addressed him, "I take it this _surveillance _has something to do with little Near, doesn't it?" There was no acid in her tone, so he assumed she was not angry with him.

"Yes… but I cannot just give you any info if you ask."

She smirked. "And what would be the fun in it if I just asked you for everything, hmm? Near is _my_ enemy to beat, and I don't need others giving me shortcuts to do it."

His eyes darted from her to the window and back. "If that's the case, then I will only bother you when I feel it is necessary… But I'm curious as to what you were hoping to gain by doing what you did?"

"Giving them info is one thing that would serve to shake them up, yes? But I didn't want just that, I wanted them to be on high alert."

"But why? If they are, you have less of a chance of winning in the end. You'd be as cold, arrogant, and reckless as Yagami Light was."

…

"Satsujin." Her voice turned cold all of a sudden. "What I am gaining will not come into play until later, I hope you realize that. Did you know that the famous detective _himself_ showed his face on the campus? Knowing that his name would be needed to kill him with the notebook, he assumed he was safe. Not only that, but he went there for a mere _interview and exam_? Then showed up at my house to speak to my father on some files?" She shook her head. "None of it adds up to his personality, with which he so desperately strives to duplicate into L's own. There was something he wanted… something _more._ I need to find out what, because that in itself could be what is giving him some of his confidence."

Teeth gritted as she thought harder about it, she raised one of her fists, and then brought it down with significant force onto the desk. The contents all rose an inch in the air before slamming back into their original positions, with the exception of a few pens that rolled away. "When I think that there could be something major I _don't know_, it fucking pisses me off. What the hell was the world's greatest detective really doing on that campus that day?! What the fuck was going on in his head?! If he has the balls to do that, then I need to knock him down a few pegs and figure out why. I need time, and this gives me some. He'll be focused on the news articles first, and that's just fine by me. I doubt he'll figure out the parent switch-off so soon anyways. When he does, I'll be an even bigger nuisance to him."

She shook her head. "No, I'll be the most pressing problem. I will fit J.H.'s quota almost perfectly. Someone who knows how to fight, has a past that could nurture me into worshipping the need for revenge, and the ability to be cruel enough to disgrace the names and bodies of the dead."

"What is the point of all of this if you are just making it easier to find you?" Satsujin's voice was in a deep tone that Sai had never heard him use before. "What was the point of trying to fulfill your desires? Was it all to play a game with another human?! Or was it so you could meet him yourself and have him kill you?!" Sai almost thought she didn't hear him right. Almost.

Pounding both palms onto the wood in front of her and rising out of her seat, she addressed the currently annoying shinigami with a hushed but dangerous emotion in her voice. "Don't you _dare_ refer to me like that. Your notebook is in my possession at the moment, need I remind you. And you were the one who chose to have an infatuation with me. Now shut up and think it through without pulling out those accusations like the blubber-brained idiot downstairs!

"If my intentions had not been clear from the beginning, I will not let someone like Near beat me, not without a fight. In order to understand my opponent, I must be able to analyze his moves without raising unnecessary suspicion towards myself. The evidence I do allow to be pointed at me is what I choose and know will benefit me. Because he will see me as being J.H., when my other plan comes into action he will be left no other choice but to take a different course of action. When the plan ends, I will be under less scrutiny, and I will have both the advantage and chance to take out Near my way."

All was silent when she finished speaking. The tension in the air was palpable. While she knew that Satsujin was mostly looking out for her, she also knew that no one would judge what she did merely from a few words and actions she committed. The damn shinigami should have _known_ by then exactly who she was.

"I see." His voice was gravelly. "But if the plan fails, you will only be endangering yourself further."

"If the plan fails, I'm screwed. I know what will happen, that's why I'm putting all my effort into preparing for it. I can't have any slip-ups, and I can't have you begin to question the things that I do. Are we clear?" The edge in her speech was like a knife slicing through the atmosphere.

He exhaled loudly, but accepted it. "I understand." He turned towards the window he had been observing earlier, then hopped onto the edge. "I have some more stuff that I need to do. You seem to be caught up in your homework at the moment as well." Then he took off into the afternoon breeze.

_NEAR'S HQ_

_It's only been a few days since the name incident._ Near glanced around at the other three, looking them each up and down. _It seems they've already gotten past it, though Lidner is more determined now to crack down on J.H._

The task force members were all much stricter on themselves, all hoping to end the nightmare before it truly started. Matt and Mello's names were taken as a warning of how cruel the individual could be. Of course, the idea of facing a better Yagami Light appealed to none of them.

"Near," Gevanni said from the metal table, "what could J.H. have been hoping to gain when he gave us those names? You said he was giving something to take something, what did you mean by that?"

Without looking up from the stacks that sat all around him, he replied, "Assurance. We're getting closer to him, and he knows it's only a matter of time. He wanted to strike a little fear into us, and buy himself more… but for what, I can't really say."

"What would be the point of buying time? If he's so smart, then he should have at least a few things worked out."

"That's the thing Gevanni: there's something that's got him worked up. I'm not quite sure as to what that would be though." Even though he said that, he already had a few possibilities lined up.

_Could he somehow be realizing that we've already got articles that could incriminate him?... No, too obvious, unless he meant it to be like that. But there's still no point in bringing attention to it either way unless he also wanted us to know that he really was there on purpose. Not highly likely if he's trying to win, but possible if he just wanted attention in the first place. _

_But then again… there could be another factor I'm not considering… something that would set him off… something that confused him. I haven't even aired a response to that video, nor has he televised anything else that we could respond to… _His eyes widened. _My appearance in public… could that be it? But, if he knew I went outside… if he knew what I was doing and why… would he still be pulling out this game? No, if he _doesn't _know… he's trying to find out, the perfect reason for a good distraction._

Feeling somewhat relieved at the possibility, Near read the last stack, already mapping out the data and organizing key events and people in his mind.

'_FOUR DAYS LATER'_

_AS RESIDENCE…_

"Ooh, what are you planning to do tonight?" Ryuk floated over Sai's shoulder annoyingly.

"I'm going with Sosuke to a bar." She was dressed in leather pants and a leather vest with a white undershirt to go with it. The sandals she usually wore were replaced by regular boots made of the same material as her pants.

"Is that so? A little date, how cute." His sarcastic tone was sickening as he laughed.

"Shut up you clown-face." Her gaze was enough to metaphorically cut through his insulted facial features.

"Kuh, you wound me. I was made with this face!" He comically placed his hand over it.

"_Kuh,_ then you shoulda tried to find another, or wear something to cover it up."

"Hey, we can't all be raging beauties like you Earthies."

Ignoring him, Sai took her wallet and stuffed it into the back pocket of the pants. She turned to stare at Satsujin, whom she'd had a little fall-out with just four days earlier. He merely blinked uncaringly back at her.

"Do whatever you want since there aren't any requests tonight." Both of them nodded, Ryuk rather happily, as Sai strode out the door.

She headed for Chizu's room, knocking cautiously on the wood.

"Come in!" The girl spoke through the door.

Sai went inside, gazing at the walls in her room. They were covered in papers with different art designs on them. Some were paintings, others merely sketches.

"Hey Sai." Chizu fidgeted nervously in her chair, trying to act nonchalant as she observed Sai's reaction to her artwork. However, since she was such an inverted person, it was hard to tell.

"I just came to tell you that I'm going somewhere tonight. Make sure you don't go down in the living room that much. And don't do anything that might sound too loud or anything else along those lines."

"Oh… alright, I won't." The blonde seemed somewhat sad to hear Sai was going out. She always felt better knowing that she was just one room away.

"I'll be back later, but don't try to wait up. You still have school tomorrow."

"Alright, see ya."

Sai turned and left the room.

Chizu had started to grow closer and closer as they went out to different places more often. In fact, even the girl's touch didn't bother her as much anymore.

…

She arrived at the address on the piece of paper in little time. Taking a subway train there made it faster than waiting for the traffic of the city. It was a decent one-story, painted a plain white on the outside. There was a chain-link fence in front, but the gate was opened, so she helped herself to getting inside the yard.

When she got to the door, she rang the bell a couple of times. It didn't take too long for Sosuke to answer it.

"O-oh… it's you. I didn't think you'd have come to my house the first time, heh… Would you like to come in?" There was a cocky smile on his face.

"No. I wanted to go out to a bar." Blunt and cold as ever, she shook off his invitation.

"Humph," he said in a jokingly hurt voice. "Well then, I guess you caught me at the right time." He was wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. "I just came from my shift at the carnival."

"I see."

An awkward air began to arise as silence reigned for a few moments. "We-well, I know a place we can go to." Sosuke grabbed a wallet from some furniture piece next to the door and then led Sai to his car. "It's kinda somewhere I think you'd fit right in." he smirked at her on the side.

She cocked her head. "Are you talking illegal? Or just tough?"

"Both." With a wide grin, he backed out of the driveway, and started heading in the general direction of where the under-the-table places all were. "I'm sure someone like you would love it."

_Sure? And we just met… hmm…._

…

It took close to thirty minutes to get there, but she could see even from afar that it really wasn't a place for kiddies to go. The street was littered with monster and beer cans. Most of the individuals lining the sides of the buildings seem to be of the motorcycle/gothic/wannabe bad-ass variety.

"You sure a little small-fry like you is gonna survive here?" Sai muttered at the man next to her.

"Oh yeah, these guys all know me from way back when. I'm not some weak little coward ya know."

She snickered at that while he pouted.

They pulled off into a nearly full parking lot. Sosuke took the lead again, and they entered a bar dressed from top to bottom in death black and blood red. All of the people there were tall and muscular, muscular and short, short and thin, or tall and thin. There were no in-betweens.

The men stared at her in a hungry fashion, to which Sai snarled at. That made a few of them drop their gazes, but those who didn't only served to spike her paranoia levels. She would have to remember them just in case.

They sat down at their table and a small waitress with skimpy black attire came to take their order. Once the beverages were written down, she sashayed all the way back to the bar, eyes on her all the way.

"Sluts." Sai muttered disgustedly.

"Ah come on, some of them have to do it for a living or because they're forced to."

She threw her stare into his eyes, replying, "Oh, I have no problem with them. In fact, if they wanted, they could always try to get revenge.

"No, I'm talking about the females who feel the need to show off their asses and get attention just 'cause they can. It's sickening to be talking to one of them one second, then to turn around and either have their humongous boobs in your face or that they're talking to some guy instead of focusing. They're too full of themselves to think of what is necessary and what they should just drop."

"… I see… So, what's your favorite color?" He tried to change the topic to a lighter one.

"Black."

"Cool." His head nodded a bit. "And why might that be?"

"Because I like the color."

"… Okay." Sai could sense how uncomfortable she had made him, and it made her want to crack a smile. "Who are your parents, and where do they work?"

"They do their jobs at their companies." She gave him an off-hand stare.

Sosuke just returned it blankly. "If this is a date, wouldn't it be best to give info to each other?"

"I'm not sharing anything incriminating in a place like this."

When he realized what she had said, she could tell he wanted to face palm. "O-oh yeah. Heh, sorry 'bout that." The somewhat long bangs he had swung down to cover his eyes.

"Then… can I ask where you learned to fight?"

A few seconds of contemplation later, she told him, "When I was 10 I snuck off to go watch the people at this dojo just fight with each other. I picked up some of the moves there, but I don't really use them. I really just learned coordination by spying. That and timing. So I combine those with basic street fighting and go from there."

"That sounds nice, I guess? But how are you so strong then? You don't seem like you've been in street brawls or anything at all."

"There's this thing called the gym that I go to. The membership is free, so I don't really worry about weight training or anything. It's mostly just running on the track or something. Most of my battle strength comes from the experience and adrenaline."

The look on his face actually made her crack up a bit that time. It was a mixture of confusion and cute hurt. "I'm sorry, I'm an idiot sometimes."

"Here, let me help: What's your occupation?"

"Huh?... Oh, it's a carnival rookie."

"Why are you there?"

"It pays the bills."

"Is that so? Why that one specifically?"

"I don't know, really. It just happened to be there when I was in the slumps… I don't mind it though."

Sai guessed that something quite bad had happened to get him in the slumps, but she wouldn't be the one to bluntly extract the information, regardless of how direct she usually was.

"Fine, I see where you're going with this." Sosuke brought his elbows up on the table and rested his chin on his palms. "What kind of work do you do?"

"I'm a somewhat hit man."

"… U-uh… you're kidding right?" He tried to determine that from looking at her blank facial expression.

She let him wonder for a few seconds, but then relieved him. "No, I was just joking. Right now I'm attending college. I don't really have a job." It was true for the most part.

The drinks arrived right then, and they both took large sips. Some of the liquid spilled on Sai's shirt, and she mentally cursed her idiocy. "Sorry, I gotta go clean this up."

"Alright then." A smile showed on his lips as he looked up at her standing form.

She moved off towards the area where women were most frequently coming out of. In the restroom, it didn't take long to rub off the liquor from the leather jacket. _Easy as pie… easy as pie…_

"_Pfft, please." Gurren shouted from the side at her siblings. "I can totally fly. It's easy as pie!"_

"_You'll crack your head open for sure." Nevertheless, Sai let her attempt to jump from the top of the play castle._

_She bunched her feet under her… and then… Gurren was soaring, just like she said she would be. Tetsu and Sai both laughed together; then gravity took over and the small girl crumpled onto the ground._

_They rushed over to her. "It's alright… I'm o-kay. I told you guys," she said in a winded voice, "it's easy as pie."_

…

Sai punched the mirror in front of her.

She was sick, _sick_ of these flashbacks. She wasn't even sure what had triggered them, but they were fast becoming more frequent.

Stumbling outside of the bathroom, she began to make her way back to the table… but lost her footing on the way there, tumbling into a tall woman with a tight-gothic dress on. This woman's drink spilled onto the floor, and she gasped.

"I'm sorry." Sai tried to apologize.

The woman whirled around, getting right into her face and sneering loudly, "_Sorry?_ Sorry won't pay for the drink you fucking moron. If you want to fight me, all you have to do is ask."

Bewildered at first, Sai sat looking numbly at her. Normally, she would have said something back, but she couldn't help but feel sluggish after remembering the 'good ol' days'. However, because she wasn't paying attention, the woman in front of her took the liberty of throwing the first punch.

_Fwack!_ and her entire head jerked back, her body following suit and crashing into a nearby wall. Sai's face burned from the impact, and she raised a hand to it, only to have it come back bloody. It was shocking, to say the least. Not many people had been able to draw blood from her, and some fucking prima donna wasn't going to get away with it.

"What, you pissed? Next time you should watch where you're going." An ugly laughter emitted from her over-glossed lips. "Why don't you just stick to the wimpy side? Especially if you can't take a hit right over here. You know what they say," her eyes seemed to stare accusingly into Sai's own, "You can't be useful to us, then you can be useful to them." Sai's golden eyes widened as the woman's face morphed into the dreaded mask of so long ago.

"_You can't be useful to us, then you can be useful to them." He said in an arrogant voice._

_You can't be useful to us,… You can't be useful to us…._

_then you can be useful to them… useful to them…_

…

Sai didn't think, she didn't feel, she just moved. Bringing her foot up, she _smashed _it into her gut with as much force as she could muster, which was a lot. A soft _oof_ came out as she stumbled back.

"Why don't you go be useful under some hot, sweaty man tonight?" She strode closer to the female sprawled out on the floor. Lifting back one leg, she began to kick, and kick, and kick. But no, that wasn't the end. Sai turned her so that she could sit on her stomach, then pulled back one fist, and pounded that into her face as well. She took extra pleasure in the site of her long brown hair whipping back and forth along with her head as each fist collided with a patch of skin.

After a few rounds of endless hits, a red liquid began to gush out of the nose. But the punches just went on and on. Sai wasn't even sure she was in control anymore. Everything was nothing, and nothing was everything. No sounds penetrated into her consciousness, it was just an endless babble. Everything was fuzzy, not because she was weak, but because she was lost in the need to hurt, to maim.

A weak voice rose into her senses. "Please… stop… why?"

The next hit stopped in midair.

_Onii-chan, doushite?... doushite?_

_Onii-chan, I love you._

…

Wetness sprung in her eyes, and she fought to keep it down. There was no way Sai would ever stomach it if she started crying in an illegal bar like that one. Rising, she dusted off her pants, as if getting rid of a disease, and then went over to the table where Sosuke sat obliviously to all around him. He was practically daydreaming when she got there.

"We're leaving. Right now." Without waiting for his response, she went out into the night air, ignoring the looks she was getting more of from people who had watched the fight… people who had done nothing to help either of them anyways.

Sai overheard some of them whispering. "She better be careful, if Kanku ever finds out her name, she'll go to Jaakuna. No question about it."

"Totally, that girl has been bragging about how she's just gonna impress the guy if she ever meets him, maybe become his side-kick."

Sai entered the car, revolted with her breakdown, bemused with what the men had said, and panicking on how what she did could negatively impact her.

The car door on her right opened. "Hey… Er, nice blood accessories." Sosuke climbed in with hardened eyes, though he didn't appear to be mad at her.

He started the engine up, and Sai fell asleep within minutes, leaning against the window… thinking nothing… feeling nothing… being nothing.

…

_AS RESIDENCE…_

"La-la-di-dum, La-la-di-dum, mmhmmm…." Chizu hummed the melody to herself as she scanned her papers. "Almost-do-do-one, yeah." Swiveling in the computer chair, she hummed another melody as she embraced her finished homework with a goofy grin on her face. There were many funny things she did when she was alone, but humming and moving around was her favorite.

_Sai might not be home, but I can have fun waiting for her return… Grr, but I don't like that dude, monopolizing her time like this. She's my idol, that dude has no right to butt in at all._ Pouting, she stopped twirling in her seat and kicked the small desk in front of her. _Well, there's no way he could be special enough to her. That's gonna be my role. I'll show her I'm good enough for her to open up to… Ooh, I even got another key-chain to represent us. I got two copies, one for both of us._ Smiling her goofy smile again, she pulled out a small box with two key-chains she had specially ordered.

Laying it out on the desk, she exposed them. The individual piece was made up of two arrows that intersected. One arrow was gold with light blue stripes running diagonally down the neck. The other was the opposite, being blue with gold stripes running diagonally down its neck. The symbol for Sai and Chizu.

"_Aigoo_." She began twirling in her seat. _Yep, I'm totally different when I'm alone, hehe._ She proceeded to attach her new accessory to the almost overwhelmed chain in her pocket.

The doorbell rang from downstairs.

Chizu waited a few minutes, just listening in. When it appeared as though no one was answering it, she went down to see why. The living room was empty when she got there, which meant the Amora's probably weren't in yet. So, she went to go answer the door herself.

"This is the Amora Househo-." Her sentence was cut off as she stared up into an ominous face. He had a huge scar running diagonal across his features, and his bright purple eyes looked at her in hungry way that turned disappointed as he took her in. The chain in her hand dropped, though she didn't realize it. "Er, household, haha."

They could have heard a pin drop with all of the tension in the air after she fixed her mess-up.

"Umm… is there something I can help you with, Mr…?"

The man stood there motionless. "Niseno Namae, and no. I was looking for someone else, but it appears she isn't in at the moment."

_What the hell?_ "Oh, Mrs. Amora is… taking showers at the moment."

He picked up on the hesitation, though didn't show it. "Of course, but she wasn't the one I was searching for, either. In any case," he pulled out a box with package wrapping around it, "would you please hand this to her." He stepped into the doorway to get closer to her. Chizu heard a cracking sound at his feet, but couldn't seem to look away from those odd eyes, even as he put the package in her hands. "… Oh, and don't tell her who I am, because it's a surprise for later." He winked at her before stepping back and turning on his foot.

With his long legs, he was already far away in less than a minute.

Swallowing loudly, scared and shaking for a reason she didn't know, she made to close the door. However, she noticed a few things on the floor in its path. The first thing was a wallet._ He must have dropped it when he took out the package._ Picking it up, she opened it to get a look at the driver's license. Her suspicions were proven correct when she saw his real name was Chimei Sutoka.

The second thing she noticed was her key-chain. Bending to pick it up, she noticed that one of them had broken: the cracking sound at the man's feet. The chain that broke was the one of her and Sai.

The arrows were no longer attached, and very far apart from each other.

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**Thanks for reading, and be sure to help support my work by leaving a comment, even if it's criticism :).**


	18. Sparks

**I am sincerely sorry for taking around two months to pick up on this story. I can't really even make any promises to keep updating regularly either, but I hope you're satisfied with the story that I can present you. **_  
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**Before I move on to the review responses, I want to just make fans of this story aware of this.  
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**IMPORTANT:  
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**Well, I thought I'd let the fans from have a chance to ask some questions without having to sign up for an account on some website. I also want it to be kind of like a discussion, with multiple people talking and giving others ideas for their own questions. Soooo, I created a chatbox that I'll let the fans of this story come into and talk to me on a certain date at a certain time.  
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**Interested? Well, if you are, I will post a link to it in a review that I leave on this chapter (since I can't post the link directly in the chapter itself) and give you the password here:  
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**password: fanfiction (you can come up with your own username in the naming box, but it might be easier for me to identify if you just use the same one as in your fan-fiction ^^)  
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**The date will be on January 12, from 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm (eastern time zone/ (America/New York)/ Standard Timezone Offset: UTC/GMT -5.00) Leave any questions in your reviews and I'll try to send a PM to answer or try to work something else out if it's from a guest :).  
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_Pathetic… pathetic… just weak._

Still upset about her incident from before, she chided herself with one-worded thoughts.

As she made her way back to the house, feeling crowded by the train and its contents, she couldn't help but wonder if spilling alcohol on herself was enough to get drunk. It seemed as though that was the case as she felt her cheeks flaming and her heart beating at a painful rate. _Almost like it's taking too much blood in before pumping it back out… a hyperventilating heart. _On top of that, her hands were getting a bit too sweaty for comfort.

Of course, what would easily be identified by a regular high school/college student as embarrassment and anxiety came off as the effects of alcohol on the body to Amora Sai.

Too tired to pay the right amount of attention to her surroundings, she dozed off on her rubber seat, unwelcome and illogical thoughts beginning to string themselves along her original banter. _Pathetic… The brat who had her life nearly pounded out of her with violence developed a taste for such brutality. Now that bastard can only reinstate her existence by wiping out that of others through means that are just as cruel…_

The Nemesis- filled apocalypse overtook her brief dreamland.

…

_AS RESIDENCE_

Chizu was still in the doorway, sitting in the aisle and attempting to somehow fix her broken keychain with both strength and mind-power. Of course, only around 3% of brainpower was trying to become humanity's first glue machine; the other 97% was focused on all sorts of things ranging from the mysterious man who had shown up to what time Sai would return.

Before long, said raven-haired person unlocked the door and stepped groggily inside. It took the young blonde by surprise since she usually didn't see the weak side of her idol. If Sai was tired on a usual day, the only sign of it would be dark circles around her eyes.

"A-are you alright, Sai?" Chizu addressed the towering figure before deciding it would be a good idea to stand up.

A tired sigh escaped the unusual image of Amora Sai.

"I'm… alright." Walking slowly around Chizu, she extended one hand and gave the girl's head a gentle pat. Her last words came out in a whisper, "Just fine."

Chizu turned and gazed at the back of one of the few people she held a deep love for, and a shiver ran down her back at just the very recent memory of Sai's hand on her head. It had been a very, very rare occurrence, and Chizu did not expect it to happen ever again. _This'll just have to go into my 'Most Important Memories' vault._ The girl proceeded to visualize locking a mental video of her new favorite moment into a figurative vault.

Humming lightly, she ascended the stairs and stepped towards the door to her room, her usual rambling thoughts almost erasing one of the problems-at-hand.

Almost.

Chizu suddenly remembered the stranger and having a package the size of her hand thrust into said appendix. At the time, she had merely put it in the back pocket of her pants. As she recalled what he had said, she came to the understanding that it had been Sai he was looking for. _That's gotta be it… I mean, if he wasn't looking for me, and if he didn't want to see Mrs. Amora either, the only other female here would have to be Sai… unless he just got his addresses mixed up. That seems a lot more likely considering how excited he looked at the thought of a certain woman answering the door. _

_But then, why would he not question the idea of a 'Mrs. Amora' living here?_

Deciding that whatever was wrapped inside the cardboard was indeed meant for the girl sleeping in the next room over, Chizu turned and stepped lightly towards Sai's door. In a few more seconds, she was situated about a foot away from the wood, recognizing that it served as a separation between both the Sai who was currently inside and the Sai who was awake and pouring out the contents of whatever that man had dropped off.

The latter image made her gut roll. A small annoyed sound echoed off of her teeth and into the empty house behind her. The man had been a liar. If he didn't have any negative intentions, then concealing his name wouldn't have been an issue in the first place… which meant there might be something within the contents of the package meant to hurt Sai. It only made sense.

Nodding her head at herself and feeling pride at discovering such a possibility, she quietly slid back towards her room, not even wishing to alert the house to her sudden decision.

After shutting the door, she eagerly (but seriously) leaped onto her bed and placed the box in front of her folded lap. Taking just a brief moment to instill confidence within herself that what she was doing was right and no bomb or poison would immediately come out to kill her, she gingerly reached for it.

Closing her fingers around its small shape, it only took a little pulling at the areas with tape on them before she could open it with ease.

Unaware of the absence in the room next to hers, Chizu pulled the lid off and gazed at the contents of the stranger's present.

_Sai's Room…_

The fatigue she acquired both before boarding the train and as a result of taking a very short nap on the vehicle combined to create a gauzy film over perceptive sensors. She vaguely remembered a question at the door and patting an imaginary Tetsu on her way to her room. Whether she answered the imaginary figure or not remained an unimportant mystery.

As soon as Sai entered her room, she made a bee-line for the bed and collapsed. Feeling tired all the way to her bones, she briefly contemplated cutting back on how many requests she answered in a night. _But I know I won't do that. It'd be no different than telling someone whose life is on the line to wait for help for another day. _

Which is why, even though she should have tried getting one of the two capable shinigami a hair's breadth away to take care of the one person Sai had lined up for the night, she instead picked herself up and tuned in to their voices.

"Well, looks like all these sleepless nights are starting to get to somebody. You sure you won't accidentally slip up while in the throes of exhaustion." The clown-faced and annoying unearthly being spoke in his usually nonchalant and slightly excited tone. Whatever he had been saying before Sai decided to listen was probably something even dumber than the statement she heard. Ignoring him, she turned towards the quieter one and waited to hear what he had to say.

"The girl we're going to see tonight is known as Orijinaru Kyara. Apparently, she typed in the name of one of her mother's coworkers for sexually harassing her mother. I went to check out the basics and confirmed it was a genuine request. I haven't actually visited the girl yet, though." His rasping breath was more defined than usual. It was almost enough to make Sai worry if something were wrong with him. But, also having a little first-hand knowledge on how he worked, she realized that he probably wouldn't have told her even if she asked. "That's all we'll have to do tonight." _I suppose it'll be me and Satsujin going, then._

Still dressed in her leather outfit from before, she gestured towards Ryuk to hand her the cloak and mask he usually carried on his person when she didn't need them. He obligingly dropped them into her hands. Once the objects were no longer with him, and after understanding that Sai had probably tuned him out again and that he wouldn't even be going with them to visit Orijinaru Kyara, he loped out of the room and towards the kitchen. He seemed to inhabit that particular area of the house more and more.

Sai, not taking particular notice of Ryuk's departure, slid the cloak over her garments and the mask over her facial features. Climbing quite naturally into Satsujin's outstretched arms, and not at all missing the fact that doing so used to seem weak and embarrassing on her part, she awaited the sensation of having no oxygen in her lungs.

However, it did not come. Instead, a feeling of flying emanated from the parts of her facing the ground as the cool night breeze brushed willingly against her mask. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Satsujin had gone through the window and was using the long way to get there. _It must be relatively close then._

Listening to the rhythmic beating of the shinigami's wings and searching, unsuccessfully, for a heartbeat within the 'dead' being, Amora Sai succumbed to something that normally a hard girl like her would never allow to take her: sleep.

_NEAR'S HQ_

_So far, we understand that our suspect is both capably hostile and from a less-than-satisfying background. _Near laid the chess pieces he had held countless times before out in front of himself: four on one side, two on the other. The numbers were not evenly matched, but the situation between the two was. _He has taken to a strong sense of justice in the idea of a person satisfying basic human ego needs and taking revenge on a greatly hated enemy. In return, the client is then terminated after a certain period of time by none other than our suspect, the Death Note owner. Whoever he is, whether he is extremely intelligent or not, he wouldn't have been easy to trick in the first place. Now, however, since we understand the circumstances involving the identity of the shinigami who previously owned J.H.'s notebook, it is clear that it will be even more difficult since our previous traps will have been relayed through Ryuk. _

_Continuing on that thought, Ryuk may have only been able to provide snippets of the more important information. Even the events of Yagami's death might not be entirely true as it was seen through Ryuk's eyes, making his the only perception J.H. would have on that occurrence. While I have no doubt that he provided a detailed report on that matter, I can still hold the idea that one or two things were not present in his observations. _

_Of course, other than possible personality traits of Jaakuna Herupa, we don't know any truly defining characteristics, yet. We can speculate, especially with the list of suspects we now have, but in the end we'll still have to wait this out a little more if we want to truly outwit this person. _

_Because the deaths of both the clientele and their victims die at indiscriminate times, we cannot start off with a basic idea that J.H. is a student. We can say that he is transported to different and far-away areas using Ryuk, so while trying to lure him into showing up might have a small chance of working… it has a much larger chance of completely failing and putting the lives of the taskforce members at risk. _

Curling a bit of white hair around his right index finger, the genius continued to ponder new ideas and theories that he just as quickly threw away while staring at the figures he had lined up.

Addressing the room behind him, his usual unaffected tone asked, "Commander Rester, I would like you to read out the list of suspects we currently have."

Said commander looked up from the coffee mug in his hands before placing it down beside a notepad on the table and reading off of the scribbled-on paper.

"'In the course of the investigation of J.H.'s identity, the taskforce has recognized the listed individuals as being potential suspects.

'All names listed here are preliminary and have only been investigated on the base level. None have been approached; all fit at least one category of being Jaakuna Herupa.

'Satsugai Yume

Ushinawa Yonen

Kazoku Boko

Supesu Fira

Jido Satsujin

Korosa Retako

Amora Sai

Tai Zai

Nofira Kuhaku

Yobun'na Moji

Dentō Gyakutai

Sekai Korosa

Mukeikai Orokamono'

'It is acknowledged that this is a collapsed version of the full list, which contains family members who are also likely to be the suspect. The suspects listed here are ones which cause the most concern and will be investigated more or less depending on developments in the case.'"

Not turning towards the room behind him or batting an eyelash as each name was read, Near stared at the gray floor before him and began assigning new tasks to the three people behind him.

"Thank you Commander Rester. Now, I would like Gevanni to begin scoping out all the families listed in the reports. Keep a record of all activities performed on a regular basis for all residents of each house. Commander Rester, I will need you to use the computer to delve deeper and see if you can pull up anything regarding any situations which may have escaped the media's eye but was posted onto the internet in the more concealed cyber communities. Lidner, you will map out each significant individual, as well as related, directly or quite minimally, persons, on that list, then I would like you to share your findings with the rest of the task-force so our other agent may proceed in my place as a double to confront any of the suspects I deem necessary."

"Yes, sir." Lidner replied automatically. "But, if I may say so, it seems as though you're going to proceed with L's original plan in capturing Kira. We have more suspects currently, but the idea seems to be the same."

"Of course. And isn't that quite boring with any resulting actions of this game plan being, if only a little, predictable?" A little sarcasm was allowed to enter into Near's voice to get the point across to his subordinate.

Without another word, the three did as they usually did whenever Near gave an order and offered suggestions: they set to work diligently on their task.

_AMORA SAI_

Orijinaru Kyara fidgeted in her seat, as most clients did when J.H. made an appearance.

Jaakuna Herupa herself was walking around the room, slowly perusing the shelves with her eyes and breathing evenly. This was all mostly to keep her awake in the presence of the girl with a request.

When Sai had come to, just as Satsujin was approaching a distinctively pink windowsill in a middle-class street, anger (along with pride) had kept her awake for the last three seconds it took to open the window and slip in. Having done all that, she wasn't in her best mood to greet the teenage girl that had been lying on her bed one minute and jumping to the back of her bed, pale as a ghost, in the next. After the usual introductions she had to make, Sai listened to a story she had already heard from Satsujin earlier in the day before he left to confirm it.

Now Orijinaru was merely awaiting the moment J.H. slid the Death Note slip towards her so she could exact her revenge.

With precise footing, Sai walked towards the bed.

Her modified voice reached the girl as she walked. "I'll help you take revenge on the man you feel anger towards. However, before you write his name on this piece of paper, you must understand that your life becomes forfeit exactly three months later.

"If you recognize and agree to this, then feel free to write down the name of the man you wish to kill. If there is a specific way you want him to die, write small so you can get it in. On the back, sign your name in the statement's empty space and everything will be taken care of."

With the sudden determined look that came over almost everyone's face as they hunkered down to write the name of the person they most wanted to kill, the girl gave a short nod and wrote. Sai continued looking around the room as she did so. It appeared the girl was going to specify the cause of death since her face was close to the paper as she concentrated on writing in small print.

Her eyes alighting on something interesting, Sai did something she never did with a client. "Do you collect key chains?"

"Huh?" Orijinaru looked up for a second and noticed that J.H. was observing the large key-ring hanging beside her door with over a hundred chains dangling from it. "O-oh, yeah. I like miniature things, so I usually can't say no whenever I find a new one of those in a shop. It's almost like an addiction for me." The tension in her voice didn't fall on deaf ears, and Sai realized that conversing with the person she was about to have sign her name off to death was probably not the best idea.

Regardless of that fact, she continued on with her questions. "Do you have any siblings?"

"Not yet, but my mom's about to have a little baby boy… in four months." the last part came out through clenched teeth. It almost seemed to the girl as if Jaakuna Herupa was trying to bring up irrelevant information that would make her decision seem that much dumber.

"What about the people in this photograph?" A covered finger pointed at a large picture that hung on the wall. It depicted Orijinaru and two young children with red hair that bore an odd resemblance to two other red-haired children connected to Sai.

"Those are my cousins. My uncle blew that picture up when they came down with Leukemia. Now, I only see them on the weekends when my schedule isn't full."

"I see." But not a drop of understanding escaped in her words. She did not understand what it was like to have relatives who might die but have a chance to visit them and imprint happy, lasting memories in their minds before death came.

Speaking in a timid voice, Orijinaru addressed Jaakuna in as polite a tone as she could muster. "E-excuse me? If you don't mind… I'm finished. So I'll give you this paper back and not take up any more of your time." Too afraid to approach Sai or the shinigami that she was obviously trying to ignore, the girl simply laid it on a table between them before backing up onto her bed and silently waiting for them to leave.

Sai picked up the paper and, very quickly, lit it on fire using the lighter in her cloak's pocket. The girl on the bed gave a yelp of surprise at the sudden flame, but didn't object to it. She calmly watched as the flaming piece of paper was deposited as ash into her trash can and hugged her pillow.

As Jaakuna Herupa once again climbed into the shinigami's arms, she noticed the complacent smile on her client's face as what she had just done sank in. Since the two figures that were bringing premature guilt into her conscious before were suddenly invisible, comfort had returned to her figure and her three-month timer began peacefully, as most usually do.

…

_AS RESIDENCE_

Chizu sat staring at the contents of the box.

_Creepy_ was just one of the many thoughts circling her head.

Inside the package that was the same size as her hand were three different things: a picture, pieces of two different colors of hair, and a small note.

The first thing she took note of was the two sets of hair. The ends were connected to each other in a pony-tail, so the different colors, raven black and mousy brown, branched off in different directions. Setting that aside, she took out the folded note. On the inside, Japanese kanji were scrawled beautifully along an innocent heart symbol. Feeling more and more like an eavesdropper, she read the one sentence on there: 'Thorns picked ripe can be just as agreeable as the fruit'. Contemplating the sentence, but not really coming up with a meaning for it, Chizu moved on to the photograph as she carefully removed it from the box and flipped it over.

The sight was almost incomprehensible.

There stood a vibrant and young Amora Sai, a million-dollar smile lighting up her features to make her even more beautiful, with her arms looped around an even younger pair of children who were obviously twins. They also held dazzling smiles and clung lovingly to the young figure that didn't seem capable of existing. It was unbelievable, the idea of Sai ever expressing such innocent and pure emotion. For a second, Chizu even thought it might have been photo-edited.

But then she understood that such an elaborate set-up would be truly hard to accomplish unless one was trained specifically in that expertise. The purple-eyed man did not seem the type to sit down and take hours doing something as tedious as that. Since that possibility was ruled out, the only one that remained… was that the caption was real. Amora Sai had, at one point in her early childhood, been happy. And she had found happiness with the children nuzzled protectively in her arms.

Even though she knew she shouldn't have felt it, and later felt more ashamed of it, Chizu felt jealousy rising from deep within her heart. To her, it almost seemed that all the hard work she had done to at least situate herself past being a possible threat to Sai completely paled to the twins who so obviously claimed her heart without even trying. More than anything, she wanted to crumple up the sheet and burn it; to completely erase it from existence, taking the moment in the picture along with it. She came very near to doing so as well.

Then more rational thoughts returned to her, and she wondered what the man who had given the package to her had to do with the contents? And why was he giving all those things to Sai in the first place?

The conclusion that her mind drummed up might not have been the best, but it didn't seem too farfetched. The man had a picture of her from her good childhood days, he had two different shades of hair which both might have been Sai's at different points in time, and he left a letter that sounded a lot like he was saying that Sai tasted better than the usual fruit. All that led to the idea that Chimei Sutoka was indeed a stalker.

_The question now is, how do I deal with him before Sai finds out about this?_

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**Thanks for reading, and please remember to continue giving me your support so I don't fall into a complete rut again ^^. And please think about coming to the chatbox interaction!**_  
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